


Two Princes

by MayoIsWriting



Category: Cytus (Video Games), Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Class and Aspect system, Fluff and Smut in the final chapter, Gen, Gods, Hetalia Countries Using Human Names, M/M, Some homestuck bullshit, i dont know shit about hetalia, it isnt that much tho, made this for a friend, snake gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:40:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24216067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayoIsWriting/pseuds/MayoIsWriting
Summary: A conflict between two kingdoms sends two friends to become enemies.Smut in the final chapter. It is irrelevant to the other parts of the story.
Relationships: Denmark/Norway (Hetalia), england/prussia(mentioned)
Kudos: 5





	1. Secret Prophecies

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a story I have been working on since the quarantine started for a friend. I AM NOT IN THE HETALIA FANDOM. This story is purely a gift for my friends because she requested it. But I don't really care about this anymore because I want to move on to other stories.  
> So sit back and enjoy! For the most part at least.

It was a normal morning in the kingdom of Håber. I was getting ready for a day with Lukas, with all the recent tension between his father and mine, he would probably like a break. 

I take a quick bath. Only a rinse with some ice cold water and the best soap I had. Its smell reminded me of Lukas. 

Being quick is key here, as I have been tardy and woke up late. The meeting was about in an hour, and I’ve barely washed my body. Though, I would think Lukas already suspected this tardiness and ordered something for me. 

I put on my best tunic and sprayed the best perfume I had. It was a birthday gift from Lukas last year, as such, I only use it when it is a special occasion or if I am spending the day with Lukas. 

Finally, I donned my cloak and tied my pouch of gold onto my belt. Feeling ready, I went out of my room. Finding my bodyguard/caretaker standing guard beside my door, as usual. I tell him of my plan to meet with Lukas and to alert my father so he doesn’t panic. Not like he ever cares.

“Fine, just be back home by midnight alright? Don’t want to search for your musty arse that late,” The guard said, his name was Gilbert, a man of english descent. Their parents were asylum seekers, and offered Gilbert as payment to my father to live in his kingdom. My father accepted and sent Gilbert to train in Clyde Nite’s Night Knight school. 

One of the most prestigious and terrifying schools. At least that’s what Gilbert tells me. 

I walk out of the castle and jog to the bar to meet Lukas. I took in the beautiful surroundings of the kingdom, the birds chirping, the citizens walking with a spring in their step, and the plants blooming with color. 

I’ve gone to this restaurant a lot. Lots of delicious food and even more delicious mead. 

Although another reason I like to go here is to distance myself from the folks in the castle. Their cafetaria are almost devoid of alcohol and only serve weak wine. Even that is in short supply. 

Their reasoning is that alcohol can cause drunkenness in people and that is a big no no in their way of thinking. Which is absolute bullshit, no god exists and there’s no way to prove that they do.

As the thoughts become more expositional, I finally arrive at the restaurant. Its name brings a chuckle out of me. A sign with bright yellow letters contrasted with its purple background spells the name of the restaurant. 

God Mad. 

I enter the restaurant and I’m hit with the smell of the delicious food served here. My mouth waters as I search for where Lukas is sitting.

I find him sitting in a booth. The dork’s head buried in his books. I sit down and I see a cup of hot tea beside him.

He doesn’t notice me sitting at the table, still distracted by the book. “Ahem, Earth to Lukas, you okay there bud?” 

He’s startled by my voice, jostling the table and spilling what’s left in his tea. He scowls at the wasted cup and finally looks at me.

“Oh, Matthias, finally came to join me?” He says, picking up his cup and sipping it a bit, “You certainly came early, rather than being 30 minutes late, you’re 10 minutes late. Are you really Matthias?”

I chuckle, “Of course I am! I just came a bit early because it's been such a wonderful week lately. Wonderful sun and chirping birds! How rare is that?!”

“Well it is summer, Matthias. It is bound to be warmer than the other months.” Lukas said, now blowing on his tea. 

“Well yeah, but it’s been like a year since its summer,” I said, waving my arms in the air “Let’s spend it not just reading old books you found in your father’s library,”

“Hey!” Lukas protested, “These books are highly valuable and shows us the li-”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, smartass,” I said, cutting him off, “Save the smart stuff for your tutors,”

Lukas is silent for a second, “So, how was your day?”

I chuckle throwing my hands up, “I’ve just woken up a couple hours ago, really. Nothing much has happened yet,”

“Yeah, well. There is… something I have to tell you,” Lukas says, putting a hand beside his face, blocking others' view of him. 

“Well? What is it?”

“There have been… major developments in the conflict. And-” Lukas whispered before I cut him off.

“Woah, woah, woah. Don’t talk about that! We’re here to relax, not to discuss conflicts!” I shouted, disturbing some of the patrons, “Look I get that you’re worried about it, but this is not the place. Just look around!”

Looking around, we both observe the bar. On one side, a muscular man in light winter clothing is arm wrestling another man in a tunic. One of them wins, and the winner shouts in victory. While the loser nurses his arm. 

Turning to another corner, there seems to be a drinking contest between five men. Puddles of beer decorates their table, another man is cheering one of them on. An uneaten plate of fish sat alone on their table.

“See? This whole place isn’t the place for this, just relax,” I try to convince, but Lukas looks to be brooding, “Just for today?”

The brooding stops, and he runs a hand through his hair. He sighs and then smirks, “Fine, let us just eat, we can talk about the con-”

“No, nope! Don’t even mention it, don’t even mention the thing,”

Lukas sighs again, a smile on his face, “Alright, alright. Let us just order something,”

“Waiter!” Lukas shouts, catching the attention of a waiter in a tunic. A name scrawled in ink on his left breast, it vaguely spells Magnus.

“Yes, sir?”

“May my friend and I have some smoked fish? Oh, and some more tea,” Lukas turns to look at me, “Matthias do you want anything?”

“Oh, uh. I’ll have a pint of beer and some bread if you have some,”

“Right away,” The waiter takes off, leaving us alone. 

We are silent for a moment, not knowing what to say. Then, Lukas pipes up, “So, how was your week? Anything interesting happened?”

“Not really. My father dragged me to church again,” Lukas winces. “Yeah, it wasn’t fun. The snake painting that is in there creeps me out,”

“Pardon?  _ Snake painting? _ ” Lukas asks, a bewildered look on his face.

“Yeah- it’s like… what the religious leaders think what their god is?” I try explain, “Though I don’t know the details,”

“Oh, alright. I just do not like snakes,”

“I know, we’ve been friends since we were little. You were always freaked out if we saw one,”

“Yeah. Oh remember that time that I saw  _ your _ sna-” Lukas was saying, before being interrupted by a waiter. My attention snapped to him, forgetting what Lukas was saying.

“Here are your food and drinks, sirs,” the waiter says, placing down the plates for both of us. He leaves for a second and comes back with a wooden tankard and a teapot in his hands. He places the tankard next to my plate, and refills Lukas’s cup.

“Is that all?” The waiter asks. 

“Yeah,” I answer. The waiter smiles and leaves, while we begin to start eating. Lukas quickly digs in, ripping apart the fish’s skin and sipping the tea in between each bite. I stare at him in awe for a while.

The both of us have been friends since our youth. In the past, our fathers were quite good allies. But recently, that alliance has been degrading somewhat. I just  **hope** I can continue to be with Lukas. 

I don’t know what I would do without him. He’s always been the light of my life, always there for me if I was sad. As my mind wanders, the thought of him having a partner worms into my mind. But the thought of that makes me frown.

Lukas, seemingly noticing my frown, my stare, and my lack of eating, pipes up, “Something wrong?”

I snap out of it, and try to cover my ass, “N-nothing, I was just lost in thought is all,”

“Uh, alright? Do not do it again, I guess?” Lukas says, continuing to eat. 

I nod, beginning to eat my fish. At the first bite, I feel like my mouth is in heaven. I eat savagely, fish and beer staining the tables, chair, and my clothes. It goes everywhere but none of the other patrons seem to mind.

I look up to drink another glug of mead, and out of the corner of my eye I see Lukas looking away. I ignore it, and continue eating. 

After one plate, we ate one more, and more and more. Until we’re really full. 

We slouch in our booths for a few minutes. Trying to catch our breath after eating. The fish was so good. God, do I want to lay here for a few minutes. But suddenly, Lukas pushes himself to sit up straight.

“Sh- Shucks, look at the time. I think I’ve got to go back to my castle,” Lukas says, trying to shift his way out of the booth.

“Wait- Hold on! Where are you going?” I shouted, Lukas by now is near the exit. I hastily drop a few coins onto my table, praying that it was enough. Then, I chased him outside. It’s night, and snow is falling.

I leave the bar looking for Lukas, and see him sprinting down the street. I give chase, catching up in no time. Lukas isn’t one to sprint, especially after years of studying instead of running around in the dirt.

Finally, I tackle him to the ground. Stopping him dead in his tracks. While we’re both on the ground, I flip him, trying not to let him escape, I straddle his torso and hold his forearms to the ground. Bringing his face dangerously close to mine. I could feel his huffs of breath caress my face, we’re mere centimeters from each other. 

We’re silent for a moment, blushes creeping up both our cheeks. I convince myself that it’s because of the cold. But Lukas seems to snap out of it and tries to push me off. But I don’t let him.

“What do you want?” Lukas yells, trying to free his hands.

“I want to know why my best friend wanted to escape me just after we finished dinner,” I asked him, his arms trying to escape from mine.

“It’s nothing! I just wanted to get home fast!” Lukas tries to convince me, but it’s a lie. I know his tell.

“You’re lying, I know your tell you dork,” I said. 

“No you don’t! Maybe my tell has changed!” Lukas tries again, but this time it’s more pathetic.

“Look, your tell is that you use contractions. I’ve known since we were teenagers,” I explain.

“Fine! But I am not telling you why I am trying to run!” He shouts. After hearing those words, I get a weird feeling in my stomach. Was I not trust worthy enough? I was his friend after all… then why won’t he tell me what’s wrong? Was it serious or did he not trust me?

“Why? I’m your best friend! Is it something serious? Can’t you tell me?!” I ask, my voice growing as loud as an angry dog. I try not to notice the tears that are welling up in my eyes.

“It is- It is dangerous for you to know!” Lukas shouts, “It will bring you, your  **doom!** ”

“Liar!” I scream, my tears dripping onto his face, “Then tell me!”

Lukas is silent, at the scream of those words. I don’t know why. But he isn’t saying anything now. A feeling most betrayed in my chest, I stand up.

“Fine, don’t tell me your secrets. I’ll just- I’ll just leave you alone,” I whispered, walking away, leaving Lukas on the cold cobblestone streets of the kingdom. 

I walk home a teary mess. I meet my father as I make my way to my room. He didn’t look or say anything, as usual.

Though when I enter the hallway of my room, Gilbert is there to greet me.

“There you are! Blimey, and here I thou- Hold on, what’s wrong?” 

Gilbert spends the next couple hours hearing me rant and consoling me of my feelings. At the end, he tucks me in bed and leaves me to sleep. 

The next morning, my face is wet.

-

Meanwhile, Lukas makes his way back to his own kingdom. Taking a carriage that was scheduled to pick him up. Nobody asks about his dirty clothes. His father tries, but he is ignored. 

Lukas sits on his bed, a piece of parchment open in front of him. An old mystical hag gave it to him yesterday, but the meaning did not set in until now. On the parchment, a prophetic poem is written. 

Two royal heirs entwined to gods

One is a prince, the other a fraud

Wrought with grief of a kingdoms destruction

The prince goes along and take action

Doom and Hope mirrored on an axis

Servants ended in malpractice

Friends to enemies is their destiny

A breach of trust is the recipe

Two gods playing a game

It is their actions that is to blame

Come with us for there is to see

An amazing story ending in tragedy

He rips it in denial and throws the shreds out of the windows. Opting to sleep it off, surely there is no way that his friendship with Matthias will be destroyed after that. They have been through thick and thin, their friendship must survive. That’s what Lukas is thinking at least. 

In two realms adjacent to his, two gods are scheming for their game.


	2. Prince of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are heating up in the kingdom.

It’s been a couple of months since I saw Lukas. He’s been really busy working with his father to try and come up with a truce. The Kingdom of Undergang is quite versed in their law making and almost always enforces it to its allied kingdoms. Often, this is a good thing. As the rules constructed in Undergang are strict yet loose somehow. Crime has been quite low since the implementation of Undergang’s laws. 

Meanwhile, I have been bored out of my mind. There’s really nothing to do in the kingdom if your best friend isn’t there with you. Most of the time, I had been doing some… ‘unfaithful’ actions while in my room. None of the caretakers know about this of course, I tend to do it secretly in the depths of night. The cleanup was usually the hardest part though. 

I tried to go take a walk in the park. It was relaxing, sure, but it isn’t the same without Lukas. Most of the guards had told me that I looked depressed. When I looked into the mirror, anyone could see the dark bags, messy hair, and tired eyes on my face. Didn’t stop me from entering the dining room in my pajamas though.

\- 

It was a normal day. I had been in my bedroom, wallowing in my boredom, until somebody knocked on my door. I opened it and who did I see but Gilbert. My trusted bodyguard / caretaker.

I asked him why he came to visit me at this time of night, fully knowing that it is still blindingly bright outside. Gilbert didn’t say anything but sighed, his face looked sullen, and he gestured for me to follow him. 

Having nothing else to do, I followed him. As I walked behind him, I tried to ask where we were going, but was only met with silence. Come to think of it, the castle has been depressingly quiet since a month ago. Wonder what that was all about.

After passing many rooms, we finally arrived in front of my father’s study. The door was ajar and a dim light was passing through it. The muffled sounds of a clock coming from the room. Gilbert gestured for me to enter.

I tried to be as quiet as possible, my father doesn’t like too much sound when he’s in his study. 

I first knocked on the door, and as expected, a muffled, “Come in,” came through behind the door. 

I opened the door gently, careful to not produce any noise. When I was in the room I could see my father, hunched over his desk. Thousands of notes and papers scattered haphazardly, even spilling to the floor. From the corner of my eye, I could see some crossed words that spell ‘truce’ and ‘amnesty’. I guess peace is still a long way from now then. 

“You wanted to see me, father?” I whispered. Looking around the room I noticed some maps with scribblings of battle plans. Was the conflict really going to evolve into war? I wonder what Lukas thinks of this. 

My father picks his head up from the scribblings and looks at me, “Yes, thank you for seeing so quickly, I know that you’ve been isolating yourself since your last meeting with Lukas, so it is a pleasure that you have come to meet your dear old father,” 

As I look upon my father, I think to myself, when was the last time I saw him? I try to think but the last memory that I’ve seen of him was when we ate dinner a week ago. His face is disheveled and dirty, and a slight stench creeps into my nostrils. His beard is gruff and unkept, like he hasn’t seen a razor in days. 

“Father, how long have you been in here?” I asked him. 

“Not long, maybe a few hours…” He says, turning to look at the clock. He squints, but gives up. “Gilbert! How long have I been in here?”

“Uh, a few days at the very least, your majesty,”

“A few days?!” He shouted, rocking the desk as he stood up, “Well, time does fly by when you’re constructing proposals…” 

I jump at that, “Proposals? Is the conflict finally going to end?”

He sits back down. “Yes, I have been trying to bring peace to our kingdoms,” He said, a dark look in his face, before interrupting himself, “But that’s not why I asked you to come here, Matthias,”

My shoulders slack at the statement, “Then why am I here then?”

My father looks at me before taking a deep breath, “Listen, Matthias, while I know that the conflict is going to amicably, I have been thinking more and more for your safety,”

I scoffed at that, “My safety? Father, I am a prince in one of the most powerful kingdoms on the continent, why are you concerned for my safety?”

“Because there’s always a bigger fish, Matthias,” He said, his mannerisms mimic that of someone that really doesn’t want to do something, “And because of that, I am sending you Clyde Nite’s Night Knight School,”

A wave of nausea hits me, and I feel like I’m about to faint, but I manage to urge out some noises out of my mouth, “B-but why? Clyde Nite’s Night Knight School is one of the most strict and isolated schools on the planet! Why would you send me there?!”

“It is either that, or eternal confinement to your room,” He explained, “I have been spoiling you for years Matthias. No work, only play for eighteen years. It’s about time you learn to defend yourself,”

I try to find reason and justify my all play tendecies, but it makes sense. Time’s are rough these days, he is only concerned for my safety after all. Like a parent should. If that’s the reason then I can begrugdingly join the school, it’s not like he is trying to force me into the reli-

“That, and because you have been quite a heretic these couple years. I tolerated it when you were young, but no more. Aside from learning self-defense you also will learn to be a holy knight of the kingdom,”

As the words sink in, the line of reasoning evaporated and replaced with anger. 

“What do you mean that I’m being sent to become a holy knight?!” 

“Look, look, don’t make this harder than it has to be. I’ve been very worried about your spirituality! Since your mother passed, you’ve been flirting with these ideas. You need to repent,” He tried to explain, but I wasn’t listening to any of it. Instead, all of the repressed anger I had been keeping exploded out. 

“Are you serious? I would rather die than serve your mystical higher being!” I argued, my voice growing louder after every word, “They’re all phonies anyway! The world is built upon facts and science, not whatever your god made willy-nilly!” 

By now, the creases and wrinkles on my father’s face have almost disappeared, the tired and disheveled man that was here a second ago is gone. His face is full of anger that almost no-one has seen. 

“Phony? PHONY? What are you talking about here, boy? Do you not see the clouds, the sky, the ground we walk on?! This was all created by our god to reward us for our royal blood!” He pauses for breath, his old face growing weary and tired. He sits back down, and takes a deep breath. 

Finally, he speaks again, “I apologize, please forgive my explosion,”

“Apology received,” I muttered. 

“Matthias, I know you don’t want to be involved in these types of things. But because I am your father and the king of the kingdom, I will give you an ultimatum,” He says, resting his head on his hands, “Either you apply to Clyde Nite’s Night Knight school, or…”

He takes another deep breath, “You are disowned by me. I will cut all ties to you and you will never meet me ever again. But, any and all resources you possess now will be stripped from you save for some gold and clean clothes,”

“What will you choose, Matthias?” He says, his eyes now serious. The devouted angry father now gone, replaced now with a cold deal maker. I have never seen him like this before. Was this cold brutal father always there, under the surface ready to pounce? 

There’s an absent look on his face and it scares me. You have never seen your father be this emotionless before. It scares you.

“Tick, tock, Matthias. We don’t have all day,” He reminded, the ticks of the clock following him. 

“F-Fine! I’ll apply to the school!” I shouted. 

“Good choice,” He said, his features softening, turning to Gilbert, “Gilbert take him to his room. Lukas, go pack your bags. Your carriage leaves tonight. Now leave me,”

The both of us leave quickly, not wanting to spend another moment in a room with him. We head back to my room, Gilbert waits outside while I go in and prepare for the carriage ride. 

I open one of my biggest bags and began stuffing it full. Clean clothes, towels, undergarments, and other essentials. In the rush of things, I picked up the perfume gave to me for my birthday. 

The bottle bringing me down memory lane. Playing in the grassy fields, hanging out in a library, playing with Lukas’s creepy puppet, it drags out a tear from my eyes. I place the bottle back in its place. 

I don’t bring it. Because it is quite fragile and it will be such an upset if it broke while I was there. But thinking about Lukas made my thoughts spiral. 

Is he going to be safe? He, like me, weren’t trained in self defense like in other kingdoms. I hope he is safe, and nothing terrible happen to him. I hedge my bets, and once in my life, I pray to some higher being to protect Lukas. To bring him safety. To bring him power that he can use to defend himself. 

Taking a deep breath, I finish the prayer. I tie my bag with a piece of string and haul it up over my shoulder. I grip it harder as I could it feel it slipping from my grasp. Finally done, I leave my room.

I meet Gilbert outside my room, still standing guard, and we head down to the front of the castle grounds. As we head down, Gilbert notifies a servant to bring a carriage to the castle grounds and that we will meet them there. The servent nodded and sprinted off. 

We arrive at the grounds, the carriage hasn’t arrived yet. As we wait, Gilbert says something, “Your father is wrong by giving you an ultimatum, you know that right?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. 

“A father shouldn’t give their child a choice between being disowned and being sent away. Especially after shouting and screaming at them. It’s wrong and reprehensible, and I hate myself for not stopping him,” Gilbert regretted. He isn’t looking at me while he says this, instead looking straight ahead at the middle distance. 

I shift from one feet to another, “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’ve seen the result of it, and it’s never pretty,” He tells me. 

“Then why didn’t you stop him?”

“Because I was cowardly,” He admits, brushing his hair, “After being your guard and caretaker, I am still a cowardly guard that cannot disagree with his master. I’m a disgrace,”

“I disagree. You’ve taken a challenge that man has never experienced. Raising me,” I told him. He chuckles, “Well you were a brat when you were younger. Honestly, I liked the other kid more when you were younger. At least he didn’t scream and shout when he didn’t get the fish that he wanted,”

“ _ That was one time, _ ” I muttered. 

“But I remember it as if it was yesterday,” He sadly smiled. 

In the distance, I see the carriage finally arriving. It’s clad in our kingdom’s colors, with the symbol at its front. 

“Seems like your carriage is here,” Gilbert states. 

“Yeah,” I say. It stops right in front of me, and I quickly climb inside. Gilbert stayed outside, talking to the driver. I heard some bits and pieces of it, but not enough to understand them. He’s probably just telling him to go to the school.

After he’s done, he stands outside and looks at me. I could hear a mutter of, “They grow up so fast,” from him, I blushed. 

“Goodbye, Matthias. I hope they take care of you over there,” Gilbert says, and I nod. The door shuts, and he waves goodbye. The carriage moves, and I wave back to him. The carriage leaves quickly, making Gilbert a speck in the distance. 

I finally stop waving and I take a nap.

I’m too tired for this. 

-

I arrive at the school safe and sound. After which, we immediately trained. It was going to be a rough few years.


	3. Prince of Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We switch perspectives

In a dark and dank cave a bright flash of gold shined brightly. Its source is an object resembling a tome of old. Its qualities are dusty and of cheap quality. As the gold light shined, a sinister green smoke started to quarrel with its golden brethren. The two aspects battled until all the gold was extinguished, leaving the book with only the green smoke.

The smoke encircles the book, like a vulture encircles a corpse. The smoke strikes the book, fusing with its contents, making them all a tinge of  **doom** . As the smoke enters, the book spasms and jitters. It’s newly made cover decaying as all of the smoke fuses with the book. 

Finally, on the cover a name is etched into the book. The name being  Konungsbók. Or, more accurately, the Codex Regius.

-

It’s been a few months since I last saw Matthias. 

Granted, most of it is my fault. Me and my father have been trying to draft an agreement that could exempt the kingdom of Wut from king Tyv’s wrath. So far, progress has been quite slow, but it's coming along nicely. 

My father has been rarely sleeping these past few days. When I wake up, he is still in his study correcting and changing the words from the agreement. We have only one more chance to make an agreement that is agreed by both parties.

Our last two proposals had ended with a shouting match between King Tyv and King Fee. After we calmed them down, King Tyv suggested that our third proposal - the one we are currently working on - will be our last. King Fee tried to object to that, but King Tyv threatened him to agree. 

We’ve been cooped up in my father’s study for a few hours now. Paper, ink, parchment, and quills are spread all over the room. In one corner, an ink vial is knocked over spilling its contents onto the floor.

“Maybe we should try to intimidate the two kingdoms?” I offered, “The  Håber kingdom is not very strong, hell, they usually come to  _ us _ for protection from other kingdoms, right?”

“Yes, which is why this conflict is so curious,” My father said, “They fully know that their opponent is stronger than them, and yet, they are still trying to fight a war, because of what? Principles?”

“Yes, it is quite dumb,” I said, as I begin to sip on my cold sweet tea. I thank the universe that the quality of cold sweet tea is still as good as hot tea. 

Suddenly, two knocks from the study room’s door surprises me, spilling some tea onto my flannel pants. My father snickers and stands up to answer the door, while I try to rub the tea off of my pants. 

I could hear my father talk to somebody but I paid him no mind. I wonder what Matthias is doing right now? After we had that fight all those months ago, I haven’t heard from him in a while. Maybe I should give him a visit after all of this is over. 

Besides, I should really confess to him by now.

“Lukas!” My father shouted from behind me, I turned around and I saw a panicked look on my father’s face. Beside him, is a wounded guard. The first thing I notice is that he wasn’t wearing a helmet, the next is the hand clutching his side. Blood was pooling and dripping from it. 

I restrained myself from puking and made eye contact with the guard. His eyes were burning with agony, although a tinge of loyalty still flicker inside them. 

“What in the blazes happened?!” 

“There’s no time to explain, your highness! Just follow me, I’ll explain on the way,” The guard explained. I stand up, spilling the rest of my tea in the process. I  _ tsk _ at the mess and go with the guard.

I walk behind the both of them as they are discussing something in hushed tones. The guard tries to walk like nothing is the problem, but even though I am trying to avert my gaze from the wound, I could still see the blood in his side dripping more frequently. 

“What is happening?” I try to ask, but the only word said to me was, “I’ll explain later,”

As we walked, I looked around the hallway, its green carpet still as pristine as the last time I saw them. Which was about a day ago. While I was looking around, my father stopped talking with the guard and came to me.

“Listen Lukas, I have been informed by our guard that there has been an uprising in the town square,” He explained, kneeling, “We do not know what caused it, but in the event that they reach the castle you must escape through the secret exit,”

I perk up at the mention of the exit, “A secret exit? We have one of those?” 

“Yes, it is located at the bottom of the castle, it is a trapdoor covered by some barrels, it leads to an empty cave where you can then escape,” 

“You? Father, are you implying that you may not survive this?” 

He seems to hesitate at my words, he wants to reassure me, to give me hope that he will survive. But he’s not that kind of man, sadly, he’s a man that knows the limits of our world. So, he will not give me any false hope, instead, he says, “Lukas… I am quite old, my life will not last long,” 

I could feel my eyes well up with sadness as he finished his sentence. 

“It is better for you to survive, my old bones probably won’t last long after we escape this!” He chuckles, and I chuckle too, “And this is why, I must protect you as best I can, because you are my son, and I’m so proud of you,” 

I try to hold off the tears, trying to show no sadness, to give my Father hope that I will become something he could be proud of. Someone that would show no fear or sadness at the face of the death of their loved one, but no man could do that. Instead, the tears start out small, a stream of droplets just below my eyes. Then it explodes, like a dam being burst open, I sob in front of my father. 

In the blur of my tears, I could see my father smiling kindly at me. A memory that I still remember to this day. But, all things must come to an end.

An explosion suddenly rocks the castle, shaking its very foundation. My father and the guard look panicked, but then my father steels his gaze and looks at me. Softly, he says, “Go,”

And then I ran. 

In a flash, I sprinted past my father, passing him and going down a set of stairs. I run down the stairs, skipping some steps and land at the bottom. I ignore the ache coming from my legs. 

Another explosion rocks the castle, and bricks start to slide itself out of the ceiling. I look up just in time, and move my head to the side. Instead of hitting my head, the brick lands on my shoulder. I hiss in my pain. That is going to bruise later, I think.

Focusing, I begin to run in the hallway towards the entrance of the basement. Dodging the bricks as they fall. I look ahead and see a fork in the hallway, remembering its location, I turn right. 

The final stretch, I could see the entrance to the basement. Its appearance is more of a gateway as it lacks a door, instead it has a sigil of our kingdom at its side. A skull, to remind ourselves that human life is limited and all of us will eventually succumb to the cold embrace of death.

I dodged the falling bricks. But, despite my skill, one lands on my knee. I whispered a curse, but continued forwards. Finally, I limp into the basement. I sigh in relief, as I assure myself that the basement’s structural integrity could endure more than the castle’s.

I limp down the stairs in the basement, travelling further down in the depths. Fortunately, light is no problem as the torches are still lit. Though the dim lighting makes me uncomfortable. 

From above, I hear another explosion. The ceiling shakes but it holds strong. Finally, I reach the bottom.

I jog to the end of the room, searching for the barrels my father mentioned. When I looked upon the corner of the room, there were some barrels that were positioned oddly. I guessed that this was the barrels my father mentioned and began to move them from their place.

Suddenly, I could hear the sounds of people from upstairs. Had the citizens broken through the castle? I began to move the barrels faster, my right shoulder stings more as I am forcing it to move.

The voices grow louder as I move the final barrel. I look back to see a man with a torch coming down the stairs, a sword in hand.

I try to ignore them for the moment, and move the final barrel. Revealing the trapdoor. I bent down, and lifted the trapdoor. My shoulder and knee screaming in pain as I lift. A blast of cold air hits me as I opened it. 

I look down to see a gaping dark pit below me. It is dark. And I cannot for the life of me think to jump in. No matter how it would probably save my life. 

What if it had monsters? What if it is just a void and I’ll never come out again? What if father lied? These are the thoughts that are roaming through my mind as I stare to the empty abyss below me.

But the thoughts are interrupted when the sound of footsteps grows louder by each passing moment. In desperation I searched in myself what I should do. Stay and die by a man’s hand or jump and be consumed by darkness. 

The footsteps get closer as I frantically decide what I should do. And in a moment of bravery, I jumped in. A leap of faith, one that must end in my doom.

As I fell through the door, I shut my eyes. The darkness of my eyes are ever more comforting than the unknown. It is as if it is in slow motion, me falling through the inky blackness of a cave. Thoughts of monsters and man-eating creatures lurk in my mind. 

Until suddenly, I dive through water. Cold water. Instantly, I gasp as the cold shocks my water. Water rushing through my body. I try to keep myself afloat, coughing as I do so. Water forcing itself out of my lungs each time I cough.

I try to swim to safety, even in total darkness I try to find the shore. I had to find it fast, before I froze to death. The pain in my body didn’t help speeding this up.

After desperately swimming in the cold cave lake, I finally found the shore. A feeling of relief wash over me as I grabbed on to the rocks. I take deep breaths as I am on my hands and knees, panting. 

Still in the dark, I opt to crawl than to walk. So, I crawled from rock to rock. Trying to get as far away as I could from the pool. Trying to find some sort of light.

Finally, in the distance, I could see light. So I crawled forwards. The exit is in arms reach, until finally, I am outside.

I sigh in relief. The heat and sunlight comforted my body, as I lay beaten and broken on the soft grass. For what seems like minutes, I lay in the grass, catching my breath from the destruction of our castle. 

The thoughts in my mind never disappear as I theorized and analyzed the reasoning for my current predicament. The town had an uprising, sure, but… what could’ve caused it? My father wasn’t perfect, but I felt like he was a good king. He was wise and thoughtful of his citizen’s needs, not brash and destructive like another kingdom will tend to do.

I slowly get up from laying on the grass and try to see where I am currently at. It seems as though that I am at a plateau that was behind the castle, I thought. If that was so, then I might be able to see the town, maybe the guard was just lying?

And so, I turned and began to walk the circumference of the plateau, trying to see the kingdom that was once ruled by my father. As I walked through the trees I could see a light showing just off the horizon. I wondered in curiosity as I got closer to the source. 

What I saw that day haunted me. 

As I overlooked the kingdom before me, I could see the fire burning and raging in the streets of a once beautiful town. Only the clocktower was left, ticking by like nothing had happened. I saw people were running, desperately trying to put out the fire. Why were they?

If they were revolting, why would they care about their burning homes? Why not focus on the attack? Then I noticed something peculiar.

Running through the town was a man dressed in soldier attire. Now, that would be normal for an uprising, a soldier trying to fight back or make the citizens calm, right? But this soldier was wearing all yellow, they weren’t an Undergang soldier. They were a Håber soldier.

As the realization struck, my mind had gone into a spiral. How… how could this happen? Why, did this happen? Both kingdoms had been allied for decades! Had this conflict really pushed them so far to attack their own ally?

I drop down to my knees, what was I supposed to do? I can’t go back home, I can’t go to Håber, I can’t go anywhere! So I sat there, in a forest. Sobbing. 

I cried for what felt like hours but was likely just fifteen minutes. Finally I stood up and tried to come up with a plan of action. Unfortunately, something interrupted me. 

A bright lime flash of smoke explodes from the cave.

Curiosity killed the cat.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Codex Regius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Books are weird

The light of the flash surprised me, did the man follow me here? I slowly turned, waiting for an attack or a shout of warning, but none came. It feels as though there are owls in the moss.

Out of curiosity, my legs slowly approach the lime light. A bad feeling comes into my gut, warning me of something. But nothing was dangerous in the plateau of the mountain, and besides, only my father knew of its existence. 

So, carefully I entered the cave. Its high ceilings and dank atmosphere remind me of a moist boat. The light came from further back, the mystery gnaws at my brain. The source was probably not dangerous, I thought. No one has been in the cave nor has used the secret exit besides him for decades.

As I came closer, the light began to dim. Fearing that it may be disappearing, I began to pick up pace and ignore the dangerous implications that this light source might have. 

Arriving at what I thought was the source, I looked upwards and saw a magnificent battle between smoke and light. Bright sunlight was trying to break through a green smoke, its beams only breaking through at gaps and slices that were quickly closed. Finally, after a long battle for domination, the smoke wins. 

It consumes the light, its green shade turning more darker. Suddenly, from the smoke a large green blast explodes from it. The energy travelling on the cave floor like a wave.

In a split second, the blast hits me and knocks me over. I fall fast, not realizing what has happened, and smash my head on the hard floor. As my consciousness leaves me, the last thing I can think of is the smell of the smoke. 

-

I awake standing in the middle of an empty smoky world. Gas and smoke roll all around me. The smell of rot strangely linger around me. 

I began to walk in the misty void. There was possibly something here. As I travelled further in the misty darkness, I could see bushes, trees, and other plants pepper the ground. Although, decayed plants might be a better descriptor. 

As I continued walking, I could hear the sound of something slithering just behind the mist. Just out of my range of vision. 

While I walked, I saw plants like bushes and trees pepper the ground. Although their appearance is more brown and decaying. A shame. 

I finally stopped, because in front of me is another cave. Great. Its entrance wide open, and its insides dark and gaseous. Surrounding its floor are more decayed plants, only this time it's black instead of brown. 

Out of curiosity and an unnatural boredom, I enter the cave. Not bothered by the smoke and darkness. I venture deeper, the sound of the slithering still present just behind me. I pay it no mind however. 

The surroundings in the cave aren’t very special. Stalagmites and stalactites litter it, but nothing particular stands out. The ground is rocky for sure, but it isn’t unique. 

Finally, I reached the end of this boring trip. A wall blocking any further expeditions. I sigh in boredom and prepare to turn back, but something odd happens. 

From behind me, the wall began to crack. The sound of it ringing through the empty cave. I swing my body around to look at it, but by that time, the wall has completely disappeared. Only dust on the floor. 

I shrug and continue spelunk further once more. Entering a large open room, its size rivals my castle. The ceiling reached kilometers above me. As I looked around, I could see the ground of the cave littered with corpses of varying kinds. Some fresh, some rotten, but all dead. 

Suddenly, a hard breeze from behind knocks me deeper into the room. The sound of slithering growing louder after the breeze. 

I stand back up, trying to look around in the dark gaseous cave. Was it just wind? Then why wasn’t any of the smoke blown away.

_ Because it isn’t wind ya nitwit,  _ I thought. Wait, these… aren’t my thoughts. Where did they come from?

“ **They came from me, mate. Seriously, notice these things,** ” A loud voice bellowed. The cave stuttered as it spoke. 

“What are you?” I shout into the dark void. My echoes bouncing around.

And again, it spoke, “ **My name is Moros, the denizen of Doom at yer service,** ” 

The sound of the slithering grows louder as I finally see Moros’ form. Its body slithers forth, coiling and sitting still in front of me. Like it wants to be studied. 

Moros’ form resembles that of a giant dark green snake. Sticking out of its head are two curly and segmented horns. From its mouth, green smoke bellows forth like drool, slowly reaching to the ground.

“What do you want from me?” I shouted at it. My arms clench as I shouted. 

“ **To help ya fulfill yer destiny, mate,** ” It’s voice bellowed, the smoke pouring out of its jaw, “ **I am here to give ya guidance and power, but… which do ya want first?** ”

“My destiny? What destiny will I fulfill?” I asked in doubt, arms crossing, “I am a failure, what can you do with the scraps of this feeble weakling,”

“ **Don’t continue with yer pity parade, young Prince,** ” The denizen huffed, its head hanging closer to my head, “ **I asked what ya want to be granted first, not to listen to ya pityin’ yourself. Now choose,** ”

“I’ll… I’ll choose to be granted power first then, if you so insist,” I chose, head to the ground and uncrossing my arms.

“ **Jolly good,** ” The denizen bellowed, his head retracting from hanging just above me, “ **I will contact you again on a later date, for now, I say goodbye to you, Lukas Undergang,** ”

When the final words of the denizen’s has been spoken, its body crumbles and breaks down. Its body transforms into a dark green gas. 

“Wait how do you-” I begin to ask, before spontaneously coughing. As I coughed, and suffered, the green gas entered my lungs. I could feel it diffusing with the air in my body, replacing my blood. 

I drop down to my knees, coughing harder and harder. Blood decorating the cave floor of the denizen. Until finally, I fall over and pass out. 

-

In the dark and dank cave, I open my eyes. It’s dark. My eyes burn, I feel like I’ve been staring at the sun. I feel something beside me and I pick it up. Discerning what it is, I can tell that it is a book. 

Slowly, I get up and try to feel around the room. The cold walls and rocky floor make me realize that I am still in the cave, and not in the denizen's room. A relief to be sure.

Carefully, I inch outside. The sunlight that was here is gone, a definite sign that it is night. Walking outside feels different without being surrounded by buildings. It feels more natural, more raw. Like something could come out and attack me at any-

A sudden bark snaps me out of my thoughts. In front of me is a pack of wolves. Their faces are hungry and desperate. I hold up the book in a threatening manner trying to get the wolves to run away. 

None of the wolves have tried attacking me yet, but they are steadily getting closer. The one that I assume is the pack leader is the one closest. Slowly, I’m being pushed back into the cave. 

Enough is enough, I think. I begin to taunt the wolves, baiting them to attack me. Although the threat of death is close, the feeling of panic doesn’t come to me. 

Suddenly, the leader attacks. Jumping at me with it’s jaw wide open. I swung the book, and it hit the wolf with a loud thud. The wolf barked, signaling the others to attack me. Almost immediately, the pack of wolves dogpiled me. Knocking me to the ground.

I try to break free, but it’s no use. Their weight is crushing me and I cannot move. 

Then it happened. One of the wolves bites my right forearm, their fangs digging deep and drawing blood. I scream in pain, the threat of death looming closer. But, the book that I was carrying suddenly jitters in my hand. 

From where I was bitten, a green smoke spills from the bite wound. Like toxic gas, it fills the wolf’s mouth, and enters their lungs. The wolf releases my hand and coughs the green gas. 

It coughs violently, the green smoke still filling its lungs. From the mouth, the wolf’s skin begins turning green and sickly. Until it eventually drops dead. 

The book, still jittering, jumps from my hand. It drops just beside me and opens itself. More green smoke spilling from its contents. I still lay beneath the other wolves, but they did not notice the smoke climbing their snouts. Until eventually, all of the wolves drop dead from the smoke. 

Shakily, I stand up. The wolves are spread out around me, their corpses still sickly in hue. I look at my right forearm. Looking at the wound, I nearly puke. The fangs dug deep into my forearm. 

I reach for the book, my legs feel stiff and my knees feel like it couldn’t bend. The book floats and hovers itself to me. For a second, I am amazed at the book. Finally, I grab the book.

I feel like I’ve died. No emotions seem to parse itself through me other than pain and the constant tiredness that I’ve associated with my insomnia. 

Suddenly, the wolves’ corpses shake violently. Their body jittering like a child on a sugar rush. I stare at the corpses with dead eyes. Until, the bodies pop.

Like a balloon, the wolves’ body explodes. Spilling their guts and skin everywhere. A green smoke rises from the bodies. It floats above me, coalescing into a small cloud. It then shoots inside my bite wound. Forcing itself into me.

I feel a sting come from the forearm, but when I look at it again. The wound is gone. Like it wasn’t there before. No scars, no blood. Back to normal. 

As I stare at my healed wound, a sudden voice comes from the exploded wolf corpses.

“That was me, sorry. You don’t have alot of control of ya powers. So, I’m here to guide ya!” Someone said. I turned my head expecting a person, or something else. But I didn’t expect one of the exploded wolves’s head. It’s talking. How is it talking.

“Um, who are you…?” I ask. The head looks like it’s offended, pulling a grimace. Or what a grimace could be on a wolf’s face.

“Seriously? I was just talking to ya,” the wolf head says. I don’t say anything, and the wolf looks frustrated, “Blimey, it’s me! Moros, ya wanker!”

“The big, snake-like thing I met when I was asleep…?” I whispered. It looks angrier.

“Yes! Yer a bit of a plonker, aren’t ‘cha?” He shouted, then sighed, “I’m sorry, for that. But, yes. I am Moros. And as I’ve said, I’ll be following and guiding ya!”

“Well, alright?”

“Good, now let’s head back up to your kingdom,” Moros declares, “There’s some business you have to attend to,”


	5. Greatly Demoted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> School is hard especially in the medieval age

“Is that all you got?!”

My blade clashes against Jones’. The clang of metal reverberate in the sparring arena. 

“A-are you serious? We haven’t even gotten started!” He nervously rebukes. His blade sliding off mine. I grin as an opening reveals itself. I ready my sword and swing at him with monstrous strength.

With abnormal speed, my blade rises and falls against his. The sound of steel against steel filling the sparring arena. 

“Well-”  _ Clang _ “I’ve-”  _ Clang _ “just-”  _ Clang _ “finished!”

With one final swing, his blade shatters into two and he falls. I drop down and bring my sword to his neck, drawing a tiny amount of blood. 

“Now what do you say~?” I whispered, honey practically dripping in my voice. 

“I yield! Please just get off me!” Jones yelled. I stand up, sheathing my sword back in its scabbard. Still on the ground, Jones rolls over and pants. 

Looking up from my beaten opponent, I spot my mentor standing near the entrance. I gave him a nervous grin as I stood over Jones’ body. He sighs and gestures for me to follow him. Quickly, I followed him, leaving Jones.

“So how long were you standing there? Did my top notch moves make you speechless or something?” I said, sheathing my sword.

No answer. 

“Come on! Why aren’t you ya talking? Did a broomstick climb up your ass or something?”

I could see a smile climb up his mouth, before it was suppressed. “You know, you should have asked for my permission first,” He says, “You could’ve gotten in real trouble if you sparred and another teacher caught you,”

That loosened him up. “Well, yeah. But you’re usually never awake at this time of day,”

“Are you serious? It’s midday,”

“My, my, was your funny bone left in your bed today?”

“You know full well that my funny bone never leaves its barred cage,”

I chuckle as we arrive at the carriage lot. It is empty right now, save for one person. 

My mentor was the first to see the person. A smile pulls and spreads on his face, and he rushes towards the delivery man. Seeing who it is, a soft smile spreads across my face.

The delivery man is immediately enveloped in a bear hug by my mentor. The shorter man being picked up as my mentor pepper him with kisses.

After a second of public display of affection, the two separate. A wide smile is plastered on my mentor’s face. Although, you can’t say the same thing for his partner.

“Mon amour! Good to see you arrive with no complications,” My mentor said. Not entirely noticing the sour face on his partner’s face. 

“Good to see you again, Bernard,” He sighed, and turns to look at me, “Good to see you too, Matthias,”

“Yo, how are ya Aksel?” I asked. He raises his hand and rocks it side to side. 

“Anyways, I’ve got a package for you, it’s from your father,” He announced, handing me a small wooden box. On its lid, the word ‘Urgent’ is scrawled in red ink. 

“Tyv? What does that old bastard want with me now,” I said, opening the box. Inside are a few items, two letters, one marked with “Matthias” and one with “MN”; a piece of chocolate, and a package wrapped in fabric. 

I grab the piece of chocolate and put it in my mouth, then grab the letter marked with my name. I look at the letter, it’s sealed in yellow wax and my kingdom’s sigil, angel wings. I rip it open. It’s been a while since my father sent me something. 

“ _ Dear Matthias, I am delivering you this message in the hopes that you are finally a paladin worthy to lead in my army. It has been seven years since you were sent there and I hope the progress that you have experienced are enough. I request that you give the letter that is marked with “MN” to your mentor.  _

_ After you have done that, come into the carriage lot and wait for a yellow carriage. You will then announce your leave to your mentor and congratulate him on training such a spoiled brat like you.  _

_ That is all.  _

_ My dearest thanks, _

_ Tyv Håber _ ”

“Hey, Bern,” I said, my mentor stops talking to his partner and looks at me questioningly, “My father said to give this to you,”

I hand him the letter. His face twists in confusion and he carefully opens the letter. Breaking the seal and unfolding the letter. His eyes go narrow as he reads the letter but it turns to shock. Before I could say anything, his movements went rigid.

“Um, Matthias? Stay here until the carriage comes,” He turns to look at his boyfriend, a look dread in his eyes, “Go to the cafeteria, I’ll meet you there,”

He rushes off, leaving the both of us in the carriage lot. For a moment, I’m confused, but I shrug it off and take it that everything is fine. 

I look around to try and find an empty bench to sit, before I realize Aksel is nervously looking at me. 

“What?”

“Can you escort me to the cafeteria? I’m not exactly welcomed here,” 

I heave a sigh and remember. The school doesn’t permit any outsiders that aren’t students. 

“Sure, just follow me,” I begrudgingly accepted.

Aksel nods quickly and follows me to the entrance of the school. A guard is standing beside the wooden door. His spear held high and his face covered by his helmet. Must be cold in this weather. 

“Hail and well met, may I enter?” I asked, with a dead stare. The guard looks at me and nods, and I move to open the door. From behind me, I could hear Aksel stopping in his tracks. I look back and he’s nervously looking at the guard. 

“Oh, also. Can my friend also enter? He’s being sent to wait for my mentor,” I said, he doesn’t seem fazed, “My mentor? You know- Bernard Richards?”

As the name of my mentor leaves my mouth, I could feel the man in the suit pale at the implications of what might happen if he denied access to his friend. Well, boyfriend technically.

“Oh- Uh- Yes you may enter,” The guard sputtered. I could his spear shaking, was he really that scared of Bernard? I know he is a big deal, but not this big of a deal, especially after what happened a couple of years ago. 

I gestured for Aksel to follow and he does, closely behind me. I walk in boredom as I go through the identical hallways that I’ve been walking in for the last seven years. I sigh, as I lead Aksel to an empty cafeteria. Lucky. 

I gesture for him to sit anywhere and to wait for Bernard patiently in a series of gestures one would think is sign language. After saying so, he sits at one of the corner tables and gives me a thumbs up. I do so in kind as I leave him in the cafeteria and head back to the carriage lot. 

As I walk, I suddenly remember the fact that I haven’t washed myself after the sparring match with Jones. Taking a detour, I arrive at my living quarters. As I entered, I could see my roommate was still sleeping on the top bunk. Lazy bastard. 

Preparing for the shower, I grab a towel and some clean clothes from the closet. I also hang my sword on the coat hanger as I leave the room. 

I head to the showers, the offer my father has given me simmering in my mind. It’s been about two months since he last messaged me. Last time, it was to announce a wedding between some nobles. From what I could glean, the invitation was sent out to all members of the family and was probably written by a maid or something. 

I opened the doors to the showers and could see a couple of naked lads sitting on the bench. I quickly strolled and took off my clothes. Trying very hard not to let my eyes wander on their private parts. Though sometimes you can’t help but look.

After arriving here, I quickly discovered that modesty was apparently banned and all knights-in-training shall have to shower naked  _ in communal showers.  _ This was apparently normal in other kingdoms, and because of the fact most of the knights-in-training are not princes and do not require private showers. 

I had to adapt quickly, lest I be ridiculed in the showers for wearing a towel of all things. 

Another thing they had banned was any acts of sexual relations. Violation will result in being expelled from the school. Although, this rule has been violated many times in the years I’ve been here. Not by me of course, I’m still as pure as a newly born baby.

Showering, I think, is one of the most embarrassing times for me. It is not uncommon for another knight-in-training to come to me and offer me pleasure. I never really knew why they always offer me this service. It’s not like I am the most attractive person in this whole school. 

Even as I shower now, I could feel some eyes looking at my groin. Normally, I would try and threaten them. But alas, violence that was not in the context of sparring is also a violation in this school.

Finally, I finish my shower. I swiftly dry myself off, careful not to show much of my private parts to these savages. I put my clothes on and I quickly head back to my room. A sound of disappointment coming from behind me as I left.

I walked with haste as I travelled back to my room. 

I entered to see my roommate still sleeping. So, I quietly packed my clothes and grabbed my sword. 

Walking back to the carriage lot, I think of what might’ve been in the letter that I had given Bernard. Seeing his face going pale is something that I haven’t seen in the years that I’ve been here.

Bernard was one of the most well taught teachers in the school. The students that he took in were often the ones that turned out the best. He was specially picked for me. Possibly through bribery, I couldn’t know. 

When I first arrived here, he was the one that greeted me. Our relationship was rocky at the start, but it slowly grew and he became one of the people that I could trust in the school. 

My memories haven't been great since I arrived here. For example, when I arrived at the school, I had no idea how or why I was there. The last thing I remembered from the day before I arrived was me eating a top notch quality fish steak. But that fact isn’t very important.

Finally, I arrive at the carriage lot, clean and bored. I quickly found a bench that was in the shade and rushed over to it. I sat down, and then began waiting for the carriage. 

If I remember correctly, it was bright yellow with- Oh there it is. 

Just in front of the gate, the carriage arrives. The horses neighing clad in my kingdom’s color. Which is yellow. Driving the carriage is a knight, clad in iron armor with yellow accents on its breastplate, the sigil firmly placed on the center. 

I wave to the knight. Hoping that he sees me and we can get this over with. 

Immediately he spots me, and he pilots the horses to trot on over here. I greet the man callously, thinking he was just another knight my father sent. But the voice that came from the iron mask surprised me.

“Bloody hell, bruv. Seven years in here get ya this rude, eh?”

I turn to the voice, not believing what I was hearing. Mouth agape, I couldn’t say any words.

“Cat got ya tongue, mate?”

“Gilbert?!” I yelled happily. The knight chuckles, taking off his helmet. 

“Now that’s a sight for sore eyes! How’ve you been all this time?”

Gilbert chuckles, running a hand through his hair. “It’s been jolly good, how are you? Good?”

Thinking for a split second on how I’ve been the last few years, I conclude that above all, the school has been tiring. Though honestly, I couldn’t remember much that happened over the past years. 

“Top notch! A bit tired though,” I say, a chuckle escaping my lips, “It’s just wake up and spar, wake up and spar, nothing really new ever really happens here,”

A look of empathy shows on Gilbert’s face. “I know what you mean, mate. When I was thrown in here by your pa, it got pretty boring after a while,” 

The both of them were silent for the moment. No topics springing up. 

“Do ya wanna sit upfront, mate?” 

“Nah, I’m in a need of a kip,” I say, climbing quickly into the carriage, “Plus, why would a prince be sitting upfront? That’s just not following the traditions,”

Gilbert commented something from the front, but I ignored him. I got into a sleeping position and I closed my eyes. 

I wasn’t even asleep for one second, when a knock came from the carriage door. Grumbling, I open it.

Standing just below me is Bernard. His face is a mix of resignation and fear. In his hands is a leather scabbard. Even at a glance, the leather was high quality, albeit old. 

I look at him with a look of confusion. Without prompting, he kneels before me and speaks, “May he who is bestowed this holy weapon be as holy as the god he prays to,”

Still kneeling, he raises the scabbard. A sense of urgency radiating from Bernard’s mannerisms. Carefully, I pick up the scabbard with both of my hands. Feeling the leather beneath my fingers, I could feel its age. How it hasn’t withered away and been eaten by rats surprises me. 

I look back to Bernard. What was once the face of resignation and fear now fully transformed into a face of acceptance. He looked to Gilbert and nodded. I look to Gilbert to try and see what might’ve happened between the two. What are they agreeing to?

From the front, Gilbert shouts, “Alright, mate. Get back in, we’ve got a ceremony to attend, so we better hurry,”

My face twisted in disgust at the mention of the ceremony, but I dived back in the carriage. This time sitting upright and looking at Bernard. The carriage moved, a sharp clank from the outside tells me that Gilbert has locked me in. Finally after all these years, I am being dragged away from the school.

Although something doesn’t feel right. 

As the horses trotted and brought me further away, I could still see Bernard standing at where the carriage once was. His face locked in grim acceptance. 

Slowly, Bernard turns around and faces the school. One, two, three steps. He stops and his body shivers. Again, four, five, six. His body shivers again. Finally, seven, eight, nine. He falls to the floor. 

Body falling like a sack of bricks onto the cobblestone floor. I could see blood spread from his cracked head.

I shout in alarm from the carriage. What the fuck. Quickly, I grab the carriage door handle, trying to force it to open. It doesn’t budge. 

“Gilbert! Unlock the fucking door!” I shouted. Yet there was no response. I look back to Bernard’s body. A crowd blocking my view. I pound at the glass, begging for Bernard to be okay. He was my only friend throughout the years of training. 

From the front, I could hear the horses reins being whipped. The carriage swiftly moving, I could no longer see the crowd or Bernard. 

I sob into the glass, tears sticking on its shiny surface. Slowly, I curled into myself. The sobbing growing louder until I have no more tears to shed. I grew drowsy and the final thing I could think about was the death of a friend. 

On the floor of the carriage, the sword that was given to me lays. A holy sword passed down from paladin to paladin. With the source of its power coming from angels. It glows a soft yellow. On the scabbard a name that was feared yet forgotten, a name that struck fear into unholy creatures.

Its name?

Durendal.


	6. Worse Ascenscion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gods are shit

I woke up several hours later. My head felt fuzzy as to what happened before I got here.

I was back in my old room in the castle. The bed that I had laid my head upon the same as it was seven years ago. On my desk, the collection of perfume I had before I was forced to go to the school. 

Standing up I approached the collection. It’s silly names always bring a smile to my face. At the back of the group of perfumes was one that I had nearly forgotten. I picked the bottle up.

It’s half-empty, some of it still sloshed around inside it. I spun it around, taking a look at it’s name. Lukaszen. Memories of him travel through my mind. Like a chest being opened, the memories of my old best friend spilling forth. 

I haven’t seen him in ages. News of the conflict suddenly died down after I was sent to the school. Although, news rarely comes to the school anyways. 

But before I could delve deeper into memory lane, a harsh knock comes from my door. I gently put the perfume back in its place. Answering the door, and opening it, I see it’s Gilbert. 

“It’s time for the ceremony. Go put on your best garb and cloak, mate,” Gilbert said, “I’ll be waitin’ in the hallway,”

I solemnly nod, and he does in kind. He closes the door as he leaves me to dress myself for the event. 

I look for my closet and quickly open it. Old clothes once again bringing up memories of the past. With some of the clothes, I could still remember when I once wore them. 

I search through the mess of fabric for some clothes fit for a royal event. Finally finding one at the very back of the closet. Fitting. 

It's a bit old, but I haven’t grown much since the last time I wore it, so I think I’ll fit. I hastily put it on with not much difficulty. Although, the parts around my particular member are a bit tight. 

I pat my body to dust off all of the particles that have stuck to this old thing and dashed to the door. Ready for the ceremony. 

Opening the door, I see Gilbert waiting for me in the hallway. When he spots me, a smirk crosses his face. 

“Going traditional are we?” He teased, looking over my outfit, “I’m kidding, it looks brilliant!”

“Heh, yeah. Got nothing more fancy than this, ‘sides I wasn’t here for the last seven years,” I retorted, crossing my arms, “So are you gonna stand and check me out or are we going to this ceremony?”

“Ah, don’t jest with me, mate,” He laughed, pulling his eyes away from my outfit, “Let’s just go, your pa is waitin’ for ya,”

At the mention of my father I internally groan. Although in reality I just nod to Gilbert. 

“Right, come on then,” He said, turning around and gesturing for me to follow him. 

Obviously I do and he escorts me to the ballroom. I walk behind him. As we walked, I noticed that his steps seem to stiffen the closer we get to the ballroom. He doesn’t seem to notice however, and I take the time to ask him. 

“Are you okay, Gilbert? Your walk seems to be a bit stiff,” I asked. Gilbert doesn’t answer however, he just stayed silent. We continue to walk silently to the ball, his body seemingly stutters and hesitates as we get closer. 

“Gilbert! Answer me, are you alright?” I yelled. At that, Gilbert seems to flinch. 

“It’s fine, I’m just a bit tired since driving you here,” He explained, nervousness palpable in his mannerisms. A pleading look in his eyes. 

I hesitate to answer him. Something is wrong. 

“Fine then, just get some rest after you escort me, I don’t want you to be ill,” 

He nods, “Will do, but let's get you to the ballroom first,” 

We continued walking. 

Finally after what felt like an hour of walking, we reached… some stairs. Goddammit. Well down we go. 

Gilbert and I then began to descend the stairs. Painted yellow walls transition into moldy, mossy cobblestone. The stairs which were at first pristine, devoid of rot. Transition into something sickly and green. 

Then I realized something. 

“Hey, Gilbert, since when did we have a ballroom?” 

The question stopped him briefly. The wooden creak of the stairs prolonging as he stopped. Not turning around, he began to explain, “A couple of years ago, mate. Although, it’s been a bit underused since then,”

“Ah that explains it,” I accepted, yet my belief wasn’t shaken. Since when has my father disobeyed tradition? Never. This is unprecedented. If my father, in all of his limited wisdom, built a ballroom  _ below  _ the castle in the time that I was away then that would mean that something is wrong with him. 

Of course, this might also be not a ballroom. Maybe it’s just a party room. I don’t trust my father, but Gilbert has been a trusted figure in my life. How could I not trust him? He raised me since I was a baby when my father or mother were busy. 

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, I could see a rotting door. It’s bottom long fallen out and green mold covering it’s bottom. Was this the place?

Gilbert reached and swung the door open. He was quick, like he was trying to get this over with, I think. He threw a casual follow me gesture, and I obeyed. 

We enter the room. As I entered, I looked around. The room was quite spacious, the ceilings reaching far above my head. It was like a sparring arena from the school. Although more rotten and moldy. 

While I was in awe of the room and it’s moldy madness, Gilbert snapped his fingers and pointed to the middle of the room. I could see my father, alone. His head propped up by a hand, his eyes closed. By his side, a sword laid. It’s scabbard old and rotting, with the blade still comfortably in its clutches.

In front of him was a yellow slab of rock. Its middle cracked and corners chipped. In its middle is the sigil of our kingdom. A pair of white angel wings. 

After Gilbert snapped, my father stirred. Eventually, waking up from his slumber. He stretched when he finally noticed the both of us. He stands up, his legs clumsy at the ascent. 

“Did we arrive late or are you just that prone to sleeping, father?” I teased. He doesn’t look happy at my comment, his face grumpy like a five year old that didn’t get his birthday present. 

He heaves a sigh as he says, “Come and lay down here, son. We’ve got to get you prepared for your ascension,”

I balk at the choice of his words, “Ascension? Is this another one of your rituals father?”

“Yes,” He said sharply, then he turns around, “Gilbert?  _ Now, _ ” 

That takes me for a trip, “Wha-?”

Then a blunt thud hits my head. Knocking me on to the slab. I don’t fall unconscious just yet, slowly I turn around to see Gilbert standing in front of me. The blade of his sword is in his hands. He hit me with his pommel.

“Why-?” I said, darkness starting to cloud my vision.

Tears well up in Gilbert’s eyes, “I’m bloody sorry about this, mate. King’s orders,” 

And then it all goes black. 

-

I wake up to the sound of slithering and flapping.

All around are yellow clouds and holy light. Nothing seems to be making sense. I look down at what I’m standing on. It’s leather- or skin. Definitely snake skin though.

As I looked around, I could see the giant wings. Flapping in the air, the breeze booming off of them. I also noticed that I’m somehow moving, the skies and clouds not staying still. What the hell is happening. 

_ Welcome to my domain, Prince _ , I thought. Wait, that wasn’t my voice in my head.

“Who the fuck is here?!” I shouted, this can’t be happening.

_ Calm yourself, Prince. My name is Seraphim _ , I thought. The voices seem divine. It gives me the impression that they should be feared. Like something holy. 

“Seraphim? Wh-why are you talking to me then?” I asked, a feeling of panic rising in my chest. 

_ Because you have reached a higher level of being, Prince,  _ I thought,  _ and no matter how you achieved it, I shall bless you with your gift. _

“My gift? What gift do I get?” I called, holy light spilled all over the sky now. No clouds in sight.

_ A gift of godhood,  _ I thought,  _ But first, I shall grant you one thing. _

“What? What are you granting me?” I urged, a feeling of anxiety passing by me. Was this a god? Was my father right?

_ Another present, of course,  _ I thought. From the sound of it, Seraphim was smiling. 

The crackle of thunder suddenly bellows in the distance. Oddly, rather than bright and colorless, it was magenta. Lightning struck again, this time closer to where I am standing. The magenta color follows its flash.

_ Now brace yourself, dear Prince,  _ I thought,  _ I am not as proficient in this, so forgive my mistakes. _

In a flash, the magenta lightning struck me. 

I screamed in agony. The pain of the lightning overwhelming my senses. I could feel my body splitting apart. Cut in twain. Like a piece of wood chopped in two. The pain it brings is unbearable. 

In one moment I was one.

And then there were two.

-

I wake up again. I’m back in the creepy moldy dungeon. 

I wasn’t laying this time either, instead I’m standing. A gold light shines behind me. Confused, I turned around. What I saw was jaw dropping. 

On the slab of rock where I once lay, is now a beam of light that shines greater than the light in my dreams. The light blinds me as I gaze upon its holy flame. In its center, a holy blade wreathed in gold flames. My body, skewered by the sword, still lays in its center. 

The light beams into the ceiling of the dungeon, cracking and chipping its rotten cobblestone. It breaks through, shining to the high heavens. A monstrous scream comes from my body, not human in origin, rather… divine. 

The skewered body burns and rips. The body explodes in rainbow flames. Atomizing and purifying the essence inside it. 

Coming together, the essence forms itself and shoots into my body. My eyes widened, it felt as though the sun had passed its fires into mine. 

At once, a transformation began. Rainbow flames began to cover my body, flashing like lightning. As it burned, I could feel no pain. 

The flames began to dim and darken, now revealing holy yellow clothes on my body. A bright short sleeved yellow shirt manifests itself onto my body. To cover my legs, a pair of corn colored pantaloons soon fit themselves perfectly, hiding my genitals. Yellow fingerless gloves manifest themselves on my hands. Soon after, a hood and cape combination is draped and fitted to my head, a cloth tiara embedded in the hood. With the cape reaching my waist and the hood reaching my back.

From my skewered corpse comes a booming voice, it hisses and lisps as it shouts the words to my ascension. 

**Prince of Hope, Rise up.**


	7. Doombound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back to Lukas

Since that day in the cave, I haven’t been the same. 

I’m more unfeeling, more bored, more  **dead** . Nothing seems to bring me joy anymore. Not even drinking tea. That should spark outrage from me, but it doesn’t anymore. It all just feels irrelevant to me now. 

This indifference scares me. If it ever shows in my face at least. The only thing that is keeping me going is the thought of revenge. Revenge for what was done to my people. To my father. To  **me.**

I have to wrought justice to the man who has wronged me. That man, no, that piece of scum’s name is none other than Tyv Håber. King of Håber, and the father of my former best friend. 

It's been seven years since I last saw or heard about him. Some spies told me he had gone to Clyde Nite’s Night Knight school, a place where he will be brainwashed to be one of his father’s pawns. That wretched betrayer, the thought of him brings rage to my everlasting body. 

But I’m going to stop him. To stop his brainwashing and killing. I will bring down the one man who has stolen all hope from me. 

The day of his reckoning is near.

-

After that night in the cave, I have been… changed to say the least. Blessed with powers weaker men will call dark magic. The power to reanimate the dead. Well, partially.

It’s more that I puppeteer their body. Well, again, mostly.  **Moros** usually takes care of their puppeteering. I just focus on controlling my own body. 

Since I got these powers I’ve been reanimating my old fallen kingdom. Starting with taking care of the pesky intruders that have infiltrated their way into my precious kingdom. 

It took… a couple of weeks, but I succeeded. 

-

_ “Your Highness! The army we have sent to take care of Undergang hasn’t returned from their crusade!” A messenger shouts, his face sweating and his fists clenching.  _

_ “It’s been a couple of days, messenger. Give them time,” King Tyv said, waving his hand.  _

_ “If you say so, your highness…” The messenger relented.  _

-

Next,  **Moros** puppeteered some of their bodies to return back to their kingdom and act as spies. They weren’t very effective. Especially after  **Moros** got most of them convicted for treason one way or another. Currently though, we only have one spy that is in their midst. Forgot his name though.

-

_ “Your highness, the treasoness soldiers that we captured are dead!” A messenger panicked, kneeling in front of his king. _

_ “Do you know what caused it?” King Tyv asked.  _

_ “Not really, your highness,” The messenger explained, “The guards that were monitoring them said that they all dropped dead at about midnight.” _

_ “Curious, go notify Aleksander of this and send him down there to investigate,” King Tyv ordered, his voice booming in the throne room. _

_ “Yes, your highness,” The messenger said, scurrying out of the room like a rat.  _

-

For the next few years, we have been planning and reconstructing the kingdom. From scratch. It was a very exhausting few years. Well not for me, obviously. Mostly all the old citizens that survived and some of the puppets that we had. 

In those few years we built a new base of operations for me. The only building standing after the uprising was the clock tower. So me and  **Moros’s** puppets began to work stripping its insides and rebuilding it. 

Eventually after a few more months, the base was finished. Fully furnished and everything. An observatory at the uppermost level, a planning room below that,  **Moros’s** bedroom on the floor below it, and a living room and kitchen combo at the bottom floor. 

It was almost perfect, except for the bedroom. I can’t really sleep these days. Although,  **Moros** likes to use his main puppet to sleep there. Said that he, “ **Never got to possess many humans in my lifetime, and bein’ a giant snake is not always comfortable y’know?”**

I relented, so he sleeps there now. 

That being said,  **Moros** it seems has grown attached to his meat puppet. I think it was a previous guard that died when the uprising happened. When  **Moros** is possessing it, he insists that I call him by the meat puppet’s name.

I have tried to refuse, but he is really adamant in this new name. So until his body is destroyed, I have to call him Kirkland. I don’t really mind per se, but I don’t really get lowering yourself to a human’s name instead of using his more godly name of  **Moros** .

But that’s his decision, and I can’t complain. 

For the past few years we have been waiting for when the conditions were all met. The weather, situation, and battlefield. This would be a massacre, but only to the king of Håber. Only to him will this be a massacre. A massacre of his faith.

-

“Oi, Prince, do you have any more of those jerkies? I’m starvin’ ‘ere,”

A loud sigh escapes my lips as I close the Codex Regius. “You are a god, Kirkland, why can you not grab it yourself?”

“It’s hard puppeteering, mate. Give me some slack, plus it’s Saturday,” Kirkland says, a shit eating grin spread like butter on his punchable face. He sits on the dark green couch of the living room. His legs hang lazily over the arms. 

“Saturday… forgot it was Saturday, how long was I reading from the codex?” I asked, walking to the kitchen and opening a cupboard. In it are a couple of leather bags filled with jerky. I never eat them though. Don’t need it.

“About a week, I’ve been takin’ care of ya since then, don’t cha remember the blanket I so softly put on your shoulders?” Kirkland asked, his arms crossed not in anger, but in piss taking. 

“I get it you worm, here-” I throw a bag filled with jerky at Kirkland, while I also close the cupboard again and sit back down on my desk. A blanket lay under it.

Kirkland catches it, “Oof, couldn’t ya be more careful? Sheesh,”

As he starts to eat the jerky, I open the codex again. Trying to study its insides to get a better grip on my powers. It’s gotten better since I was in the cave. Now, I’ve gained the power to pressurize and shoot it at targets.

“Oh, by the way do you have-” Kirkland said, before he was cut off. He slumps over and I heave a sigh of relief. Finally. 

It’s probably something serious happening with the spy. He has to focus all of his control on one place if he needs to puppeteer that thing with more than one brain cell. Plus, I’m not too concerned, nothing is ever happening these days-

Suddenly, a large boom blows out the windows in the base of operations. I stand up, knocking over some ink bottles from the desk, and bolt out of our tower.

I leave Kirkland slumped over on the sofa. His eyes empty as nobody is home. The emergency needs the denizen’s full attention.

From the outside, a panicked look creeps on my face, although it isn’t really genuine. I’m worried sure, but not THAT worried. 

I look around, trying to find something that might have caused the burst of energy. Looking around the town, I could also see that the town folks' windows are also shattered. The pieces lay on the dirt road of the street. 

Suddenly, a boom comes from the sky, and I whip around. In the sky, a bright beam of yellow-ish white light is piercing the sky. The clouds encircling it. What the hell happened over there?

Taking a glance at Kirkland’s body proves that he’s still focused on the matter at hand. He can report back later. For now it seems, the time of inaction is over. 

In the distance, a god is born.

-

“So, what happened over there?” I asked. Kirkland slumped in the chair of our planning room. A look of exhaustion painted on his face. 

“My,” Kirkland sighed, holding his head in his hands,”sibling seems to have chosen a champion,”

“A champion?” I asked, crossing my arms and sitting on the chair at the other side of the table. 

“Yes, like what I did with you,” He explained, dark eyebags on his eyes, “We have to choose a champion from time to time, it's this whole thing. I really don’t want to discuss with you,”

“What? Why?” I asked, uncrossing my arms and standing up.

“Look, it's been a long day alright?” He argued, picking his head up from the table, “We can continue tomorrow, I’m going to bed,”

Kirkland stands up and sluggishly walks downstairs to his bedroom. I sigh after he is gone, and go downstairs to grab the codex and to finally read about the Denizen section. 

I tiptoe down the stairs, careful not to awake Kirkland in his sleep. He gets pretty grumpy if he’s woken up in the middle of his sleep. Well, ‘sleep’.  **Moros** usually minimizes his consciousness if he was ‘sleeping’. Mostly it was to avoid conversation with me. Which hurt. Somehow. 

I reach the bottom and grab the book. Its appearance is still the same after all these years. Dusty and in bad condition. I tried to replace its leather a couple of years back but it decayed shortly after. 

Firmly putting the book under my arm, I climb the steps back to the planning room and open it up. Its paper is as dusty and ripped as when I last read it. Which was this afternoon.

Flipping the pages to the Denizen section I then began reading. 

The Denizens are all apparently snake-like beings that preside over and control the universe. In the book, there are fourteen Denizen. With only  **Moros** being described the most clearly. While the others are described mostly as vagued explanations.

The twelve out of the fourteen symbolizes the aspects of the world. The other two symbolizes the weakest and the strongest of the universe. The latter rarely pick champions, and if they do it’s for good reason. The other twelve pick champions every so often, mostly after the previous one has died. 

In the codex,  **Moros’s** role is described more as the Denizen of Doom. He rules over and controls the limits, decay, and rules of the universe. A perfect fit for me actually. 

His siblings’ are also described, albeit more vaguely.  **Moros** has three siblings. None of which are older or younger than the other. Their names are  **Jörmungandr, The Seraphim,** and **Euthenia** . 

The sibling that  **Moros** was talking about in his planning room was probably  **The Seraphim** . As they symbolize Hope and Faith, the two pillars of Håber.

I slam the book shut. This was not the kind of the thing to read right now. I need to prepare for an invasion at Håber. I’ll have to strategize with  **Moros** when he wakes up. I can’t do this alone. 

I sigh and pick up the codex and shove it in a random bookshelf in the planning room. Time for a bit of fresh air, I think. Walking downstairs, I pass by Kirkland still sleeping. Seeing he isn’t using a blanket, I jog to the living room. 

I grab the blanket from under the desk and unceremoniously lay the blanket on top of his currently lifeless body. It’s the nice thing to do. 

Heading back downstairs, I walk outside. It’s night. Typical. Sighing in defeat, I take that walk anyway. 

The night hasn't always been the best to me. When I was a child, I was terrified of it. The absence of light has always been an uncomfortable place for me. But ever since I got the codex, my nyctophobia has gotten better. So has my fear of death, but that comes with my immortal body. 

I walk through the kingdom, soggy ground beneath my feet and the glistening moonlight in puddles. Did it rain recently? I didn’t remember. I reach the edge of the town. A graveyard hangs near the edge of the forest. 

The graveyard was empty, save for a warm light on one of the graves. I stare at it curiously, who was awake at this time of night? Maybe a guard, but they aren’t usually in the graveyard.

I step closer, and see that it is a man. Broad shoulders and big arms, a lumberjack then. He has golden hair, a pang of sadness crawls from my heart. He’s standing in an unmarked grave, its tombstone not inscribed with any name. Yet it is decorated with candles. On the grave there seems to be a wood marionette. One similar to the one I owned.

The man turns around, and I can see his face. A thick beard covered his face, and a face that seemed similar. But the man is too old for him, he cannot be him. Besides, he isn’t even here. 

“Lukas…?” He muttered. I look at him in confusion, while my name is not publicly available, it’s not something some lumberjack would know. 

“How did you know that?” I ask him, and he looks startled before composing himself. Putting a hand to his hair.

“Oh, nevermind. I thought you were one of my friends,” The man said, breathing a sigh, “Another insomniac, eh? Taking a walk to calm the mind?”

“Yes, the explosion this morning had been pretty troubling for me,” I said, “Why are you out here?”

“Oh!” The man said, sidesteps revealing the grave, “I was giving a gift to a friend of mine. He passed a few years ago, so this is the only way I was able to give it to him,”

On the grave is what I had seen before, a wood marionette and some candles, what I did not expect was a sword stuck in the dirt of the grave. It’s pommel sticking straight up. Like excalibur, but worse.

“Oh, don’t mind the sword, it was here before I got here. I don’t know where it came from, but we shouldn’t do anything to it. Probably cultural or something,” The man explained, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck.

“I had one of these marionettes when I was younger,” I said, picking it up. It’s almost a perfect replica but I could see the slight deviations from mine. 

“Oh you did? Where did you get one? If I could’ve bought one, I wouldn’t have to make one!” The man chuckled, “I jest, making the marionette was one of the best experiences of my life,”

“My...friend, bought this marionette for my birthday,” I said, putting the copy back down on the grave, “Later in life, he decided to betray me,”

“I’m… very sorry to hear that, but at least you have new friends, right?” The man asked. The only thing resembling a friend these days are  **Moros** but I don’t consider him one. He’s like an unfunny mentor or worse, a freeloader.

“Friends... are not something I have many of,” I admitted to him. A feeling of embarrassment seem to surface, but I ignored it.

“Yeah, I could tell,” The man said. A muttering of, “Do not be rude…” comes from me as the man looks embarrassed. “I jest, but what if we became friends? Would you like that?”

I look at him with a poker face, a ghost of a grin appearing on my face. “Sure,”

“Fantastic!” The man shouted, throwing his arm in the air before he quickly covered his mouth. 

“Well, great then. Oh so what’s your name?” The man whispered. 

“It’s Lukas, you got it right the first time,” I admitted. He looks to be surprised and then he smiles.

“Well, my name’s Matthew good to meet you, Lukas!”

-

For a few feeks after the walk, Matthew would drop by the tower to give us food. It was mostly jerky, but Kirkland wasn’t complaining. Sometimes he would hang out with him everyday. I am still a shut in, and spent most of the days planning for our inevitable battle with Håber. 

When the day comes and I am walking to the battlefield, Matthew meets up with me. 

“Are you sure about this? Your army is pretty small compared to Håber’s,” Matthew asked. He wasn’t joining the battle, normally I would let Kirkland to possess him, but he was my friend. 

“Yes, I am sure, Matthew,” I assured, “There’s no turning back now,”

“Fine, I’ll wait in the tower for you, alright?”

“Alright, see you later, Matthew,”

“See you later, Lukas,” 

I walked out of the tower, leaving Matthew inside. Kirkland is outside, telling me to hurry up. Strangely, he lingers behind me before finally following.

-

An army reaching the thousands march towards the kingdom of Håber. Over half of the troops are puppets, with Kirkland controlling all of them. He stands near the back, defended by an encirclement of human shield bearers, while I stand at the front sword in hand. 

The infantry consists mostly of puppets with some humans for added flavour. We march onwards, towards bringing justice to the man behind the slaughter. Prime and ready to kill only one man, with the others as collateral. 

In the distance, another army marches. Clad in yellow and white, are the soldiers and knights of Håber. In the front, a man clad in what could be described as a godhood stands with his holy sword by his side. A rage in his eyes. 

Behind him, his father stands. His face was not full of terror but regret. Beside him, a knight in shiny golden armor has his sword at the ready, eyes covered and not seen. 

The silence between the two army stretches. A look of betrayal in the face of the Håber’s army leader. A tinge of fear between his blue eyes. 

Standing tall, I whispered to one of the puppets, “Do it,”

From the other army, I see a burst of movement in a few seconds. Confusion spreads through their rank before it's all over. 

A figure sprints carrying a body with him to the divide of the two armies. They slam the body to the ground. In his scabbard, he carries a bloody sword. Assassination complete. 

On the ground, the body of King Tyv is dead. The battle is won before it has started. 

A grim satisfaction rises in my chest. Good show.


	8. Two Kinds of Puppets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War is coming

“What the fuck happened to me,” I whispered. My body is now gone from the slab of rock. Only a sword was left in its wake, still stuck in the slab, unmoved. 

On the ground in front of me, Gilbert is lying face flat on the ground. His butt high up in the air, slumped over himself. On the other side of the slab, my father stands with an expression of shock and ecstacy.

“What did you do to me, old man?!” I shouted at him. He flinches and he looks at me with an awed expression and then he chuckles. 

“Tell me, old man! What did you do to me?!” I yelled, the sound echoing in the old dungeon. A burst of white fire bursts from me as I yell, making me flinch. The fire goes out instantly.

My father chuckles harder, turning into a laugh, which grows maniacal by the second. He tries to control himself, and he finally does. The laughter dying down as I stare at him with an anger that rarely comes out.

“Spit it out!” I shouted, the white flames bursting as I shouted. Getting the final bits of laughter out, my father says, in an elated tone.

“I turned you into a god!” He chuckled, “After all these years of you denying the existence of a higher power, I turned you into one!”

I stared, horrified. He was right. All these years I’ve mocked, debased, and denied the existence of a god, and yet. I am its proof. I am a god now.

As the thought dawned, it turned to dusk fast. This doesn’t change anything, I think. I was human. That is enough. 

But as I try to think of my existence, I see Gilbert. Still unconscious. I need to check if he is alright. I dashed over to him, summoning a speed that I did not expect.

I crouch and shake him. But he doesn’t wake up. I turn him over, to see if he is breathing. 

He is breathing, that is for sure. But there looks to be a faint smoke wafting from his mouth. Shit, I need to get him checked in the infirmary. He might be injured, smoke coming out of your mouth is definitely not healthy.

I pick him up, and I am briefly surprised at my strength as I feel like I am carrying a twig. I hold him under my hand, and march out of the dungeon. Leaving my father alone.

“Where are you going?” My father asked.

I scowl and look back, seeing he is trying to pull the sword from the stone. Not entirely paying attention to me leaving. “I’m bringing Gilbert to the infirmary,” As I leave the room. No reply comes.

-

A couple days pass without Gilbert waking up. 

He’s alive. I trust the nurses that take care of him are telling the truth. The faces they make when I leave the room makes me worry though. It's never happy.

After my ascension, I left to go sleep in my room. It’s the only safe place for me in this whole castle. I didn’t bother changing out of my god hood, besides, as soon as my head hit the bed I was asleep. 

When I woke up, the sword that pierced me was on my dresser with a note attached to it. It was yellow and was written in black ink. Judging by how it was chicken scratch, I believed that it was my father. I was right.

I picked up the note and skimmed it. It wasn’t long. Just an invitation for me to meet him in his study room. Alone. To discuss something. I sighed, and stand up.

I grabbed the sword, but as I did, a spit of white flames burst along the sword. Like a line of oil being caught on fire. I held the sword close to me, the flickering flame not emitting a heat that I can feel. 

With great caution, I sheath the sword. Miraculously, it didn’t melt and burst into flames. Finally ready, I march my way to my father’s study. Odd glances thrown my way as I walked the halls of the castle. 

I reached his study soon enough, not a second to spare. My tardiness has been cured it seems. The door is ajar and a dim light is passing through the gap. With two harsh taps, I knock on his oak door. A feeling of deja vu courses through me as I gripped the knob and swung the door open. 

Inside, my father is in disarray. His head in his hands, his hair and beard dirty and unkept. Like a feral animal, I think. Books, papers, and other things lay on the floor of his study. Either broken or in poor condition. The grandfather clock no longer ticking.

A bookshelf lays against the ground. The books it contained spilled out. 

I get closer to my father. The sound of muffled sobs growing louder as I get near. I’ve never seen him like this, but then again. I haven’t seen what he is mostly. 

Not wanting to waste much more time than this, I cough into my hand. Notifying him of my presence. 

His head darts up and sees my imposing figure before him. His pupils expanding.

At the sight of his face I scowl. “What do you want?”

“Look, son-” He said, before I cut him off. 

“Try another name, I’m no longer your son,” I said to him. A painful look on his face.

“Fine, Matthias. I just…” He trails off, “I just want to say that I’m sorry, for killing you,”

The words caught me off guard. He’s… Apologizing? Since the day of my birth, my father hasn’t been very forgiving of me. Always going on and on about how I’m a doubter and not going into the good afterlife. He’s been one of the biggest pains of my life. 

To hear him apologize for basically slaughtering his own son - on a sacrificial altar no less - is absolutely fucking hilarious. That old fucker has been a thorn in my ass for no less than twenty five years and he apologizes for murdering his own son?

Not for the years of verbal abuse, not for the seven years I had spent in CNNK, not for the insistence of praying to a god that didn’t care for him, just this one little thing that didn’t matter anymore. 

Sure, he killed me, but I was resurrected. It didn’t matter anymore. 

“Father, why… are you apologizing for that?” I said to him, the grim look disappeared as anger took place though masked with kindness. 

“Because I feel bad,” My father said, hanging his head low. Like he has the gall to apologize to his son.

“Then why don’t you apologize for all of the terrible things you have done to me before that?” I snapped, the mask of kindness replaced with the truth, “Are you saying to me that you don’t feel bad for the abhorrent way you treated me since I was a child?”

My father pulls his head up, staring at me. A look of confusion present on his wrinkly face, “W-what do you mean?”

“Oh, has your age made you forget? The years of my life, berated, shouted, and insulted by you? Your care for the kingdom that was far greater than for me, your son?” I shouted, the words reverberating around the room. 

“But- I had repented! You don’t know the days of remorse that I had experienced while you were away!” My father argued, no longer sitting. His hands flailed.

“But you didn’t apologize!” I screamed, a yellow glow burned behind me, throwing the room into a blindingly bright light show, “You prayed to a god who didn’t give a shit what you did!”

The room is too bright now and I feel like I’m literally on fire. The white flames travelling and jumping on my skin, like little snakes, it wraps around my body. 

I take in a deep breath, calming myself from my rage. The light dimming and the fire extinguishing. Finally, it dims just enough to see my father no longer standing behind his desk. 

I look around, trying to discern where he could’ve gone. But nothing stands out, the charred look of the room making it hard to find the difference between charred wood and skin.

I take deep breaths as I look around. The flames from my rage not all put out. Licks of fire sticking to my body like flies to a corpse. But as I calm myself, weird sounds come from behind the desk.

It sounds like… sobbing?

Stepping closer, I go around the desk to see my father cowering beneath the desk in the fetal position. Seeing my old man sobbing like a child, it makes me angry. But I don’t let it. I take deep breaths. Calming breaths.

I leave the room, letting my old man sob. I’ve got better things to do.

-

The next day, Gilbert was awake in his bed. And by morning, he was already back at the barracks, training. Slashing up a poor hay scarecrow to practice his slices. The nurses urged him to stay and rest more but he wouldn’t take it. From morning until the evening Gilbert Webb, trains. 

Since the day at his study, I haven’t seen my father. So, that was good. But today as I was relaxing in my room, something mystical happened. 

It was a bright day, the clouds were mostly gone, just some puffs in the sky. I was laying on my bed, relaxed. There was nothing to do at the castle. I could go outside, but I wasn’t in the mood for that.

As I laid thinking of the future and what I wanted to do (cause seriously, I have absolutely no idea), a bright flash of light suddenly pierced my eyes. I shut it close, but when I opened it again. I was in the Seraphim’s realm.

I was once again standing on top of the giant snake, its six wings beating against the air in a practiced routine. The clouds and sky around me no longer filled with thunder and tinted magenta, now back to its normal colours. A bright yellow sky with white cotton clouds. 

It was silent for a couple of minutes. No voice in my head, just the sound of the wind blowing past me and the sound of the wings beating.

After a whole minute of total silence, the beast finally spoke.

_ Welcome back to my realm, Prince,  _ It echoed, the voice now annoyingly divine in my head. 

“Why am I here?” I shouted, shifting my weight from the other foot. Something doesn’t feel right.

_ I am here to give you an omen, Prince _ , The god said, its mental voice seeming calm and composed with a tinge of worry at the edge of it. 

“What’s the omen then?” I shouted, tapping my foot. This really doesn’t feel good. 

_ My brother’s champion-  _ It had begun talking, but I interrupted, “A brother? There’s more of you?”

_ Yes. Now as I was saying, my brother’s champion is planning an attack on your kingdom, _ The beast explains,  _ He, his champion, and an army of the decayed are going to invade and decimate the kingdom unless you stop it. _

“Wait, why me?” I shouted, a blast of anxiety slowly rising within me. The tapping gets faster. 

_ Because you’re the one chosen for this, besides, your army will be with you, _ the beast says. 

“Do you know when the invasion is going to happen?” I shouted, sweat dripping off of my head. This can’t be happening so soon, I feel like I’m going to melt. 

_ In a couple weeks, if my information is correct, _ the beast says,  _ You best prepare now.  _

And then I woke up. 

-

Immediately after, I alerted Gilbert of the dream. 

He was shocked, “Two weeks? That’s not enough time to train an army!”

“Well you better suck it up, because it's all we’ve got,” I said, crossing my arms, “Now, train your troops, we’ve got a battle to win,”

Gilbert sighed, “Alright, let’s do this,”

Throughout the couple weeks that we prepared, we trained harder than before. The guards, the knights, and any other able citizen joined in. Of course, in two weeks, not many of them were nearly as skilled that I would like them to be. But we can definitely dominate them by numbers alone. 

While it is not necessary, I forced my father to partake. I told him it was for penance, and he believed me. Surprisingly, he wasn’t the weakest of the group. Something about, “Being a king means that he should be able to fight”. I wasn’t really listening.

Finally, the day comes. It had been a sunny day. We were prepared, the omen of The Seraphim still heavy on my mind. After a long while of waiting on the battleground, a scout rushes back from the forest and reports his finding. 

The army is coming, although their ranks are disorganized and there weren’t many of them, only a couple thousand. My men got ready and prepared to meet the invaders in the middle.

Together, we marched forward to the invading army. Our steps marched as one. The sound reverberating in the ground like a small earthquake.

The gold and white of our armies glistened in the sunlight. We march, with my army behind me. Gilbert beside me, clad in armor, his helmet glistening in the light. My father though, isn’t wearing a helmet, instead facing the invasion with a smoldering determination. 

Out at the edge of the horizon I see the marching army. The scout was right, their formation is terrible. How pathetic of them.

Our armies meet at the edge of a grassland, devoid of any trees. The forest never dared to grow here for whatever reason. 

On one end, stand the troops of Håber. On the other, the army of what the Seraphim called as the “decayed”. No wonder they’re all green and sickly. 

The other army stands still, their leader stands up front. A young man with golden hair and… dark green uniform...holy hell is that Lukas?!

Disbelief and stabbing pain breaches my chest. What the hell?! Why is my old best friend here? Is he the leader of this army?

My face drips with sweat as I see his familiar face. My body feels stiff and the sense of betrayal. The raw emotion clamoring to come out. But I held back, the rush of emotion blocked by a wall hastily put up. That’s enough for now.

Out of the corner of my eye, a burst of movement grabs my attention. I turn my head only to get hit with a pommel of sword. I fall but I catch myself and stand back up. By that time, I was too late. 

I try to look at where the man who hit me might’ve gone, but what I saw was terrifying. On the ground, blood was spilled. I look up in haste and look to the divide in the middle of our two armies. 

A body lay on the dirt of the land. While another figure stands on top of it, their golden armor now drenched in blood. With rising panic, I look to see at the figure on the ground. 

It was my father. 

A void feels like it explodes in my body. The feeling of emptiness at the sight of my father’s corpse brings me no joy or sadness. Just empty. 

I look to the man responsible. Their body is tight and straight. The helmet of Håber lays firmly on top of their head, exposing no features. But I immediately knew it was him. 

Without even the sight of his red eyes, I knew it was him. 

Gilbert had killed my father.


	9. Battlegrounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> War and fight scenes

The sound of clashing metal is the first thing both armies hear as the war starts. A battle between yellow and green, its scale as big as hot as the star that’s shining down big rays of sunlight on the planet. 

The armies of Undergang hold strong and hold off the opposing army of Håber. Their undead bodies enduring much more punishment than the normal soldier in shining metal armor. 

Like two waves crashing into each other, the battle is off to a strong start. White flames sprouting and burning soldiers. With accents of green and black struggling to keep up. The two leaders try to get close with little success. 

But of course, the two forces finally meet in the middle, and what can only be described as an explosion of yellow and lime devastates the battlefield. The blasts of energy travelling through the sky like lightning on a stormy day. Striking both sides of the conflict, casualties rising more quickly than billowing smoke from a campfire. 

As the dust settles, there stands three men in the bald spot between the two armies. On one side, an ironclad man in a fighting stance stands with his holy sword on guard. On the other, a puppet in iron armor and his master stand in a line, their eyes spilling with a dark green light. 

“Why are you here Lukas? You were never a part of this!” Matthias shouted, his grip on his sword growing tighter. Dirt and grime dusting his face. His sword shifted from its high stance to a more defensive guard, just above his abdomen. 

From behind Gilbert, Lukas shouts back, “Your father started this Matthias, don’t you forget that!” 

Gilbert’s stance shifts, and he dashes forward and brings down his sword on Matthias, the latter blocks it, the clang of the swords ringing in the air. Matthias acts quick and dodges the next swipe by a hair’s length. 

“Then why is Gilbert here? He never did anything to you!” Matthias yells, blocking another strike. This time though, as Gilbert’s sword is brought down, it melts in half. The heat from Matthias’s holy blade burned hot enough to melt iron and split a sword in half.

Gilbert tchs before back peddling, guarding Lukas again, although without a weapon. 

“Never did anything to me? He was the leader of the uprising that destroyed my kingdom!” Lukas shouts back, and Matthias falters in his steps. From behind Lukas, he could hear footsteps.

With haste, Gilbert dashes behind Lukas, surprising a soldier that was preparing to attack, and with quick strikes bends and breaks the soldier’s metal armor. Lukas could hear the sounds of bones cracking but he didn't know where it came from. 

Gilbert snatches the fallen soldier’s weapon and with a quick slice, severs the soldier’s head. Turning back, he goes back in front of Lukas, now equipped with a new sword. 

All that before Matthias had a chance to react. 

Matthias realizes that this isn’t the Gilbert he knew, his Gilbert wouldn’t cut down a soldier that fast. But after he killed his father, he didn’t really know Gilbert that much anymore. 

“Your- Your kingdom was destroyed?” Matthias asked in disbelief. He didn’t really know what happened since he was gone, but he didn’t expect  _ that _ . Was this why he was sent there? To not interfere?

“Do not play dumb with me, Matthias. I know you were involved in that,” Lukas spat back, opening the codex and speaking four latin words that Matthias couldn’t understand. 

Dark green tentacles shoot up from the ground and restrains Matthias, forcing him to kneel. His sword fell beside him. Gilbert rushes forward his new sword raised high and he brings it down. The sword falling faster than a dive bombing falcon.

However, before it got any close, a burst of white flames stems from Matthias. Melting the sword before it got close and the tentacles that held him there. He picked up his sword again and in one quick slice, went through Gilbert’s armor like a hot knife through butter. 

Ignoring the burning metal on his chest, Gilbert retreated back to Lukas, another melted sword in hand. He throws it away and raises his fist and widens his stance. 

Matthias grips his sword harder and he pants. Sweat and grime covering his uncovered face, the bags under his eyes more pronounced. 

“I wasn’t involved with anything my father did, Lukas. It was all him,” Matthias tried to explain, but Lukas wasn’t having none of it today. Maybe yesterday or last year but he isn’t going to eat what Matthias is serving here. 

“Really? Then what was those seven years you spent in that stupid knight school? Was that your father too?” Lukas asked, his voice growing louder by each word. 

The codex glows darker and three bolts of dark green energy shoot out from it. Wrapping around Gilbert and bursting forth with speed not even Matthias could react to. The three bolts hit both of his arms and his thigh, launching his sword out of his hand. The armor did little to block the bolts, tearing apart as it made contact. 

The sword lays beside him, and Matthias slowly gets up again. Not one to be taken out so easily, but as he tries to reach for his sword, Lukas yells, “Oh no you do not!” and he casts another spell. 

“That thing has been a pain in the ass to deal with, so we will go to a different place. Moros, take care of the rest for me,” Lukas shouts. The book turns black before shooting two beams at Lukas and Matthias. Instantly transporting the both of them to another location. 

In its wake, the Gilbert puppet sighs. And with great speed, takes care of Matthias’s army with ease. Thousands of bodies lay in his wake, as his own body finally splits apart from the stress that has been put on it. Bone, muscle, and skin tearing apart as the power that kept it together leaves it. What remains is only a pile of meat and muscle on the ground, barely breathing and dead.

-

Two men reappear in a broken and burning kingdom. Fire, flames, destructions, and doom spread over and covering all of it. Soldiers, citizens, and guards lay on the ground, bloody and burned. Weapons decorating the ash filled landscape, one sword even deep inside a stone. 

The flames move slowly, as do the people that are running, fighting, and defending the place. Time stretched infinitely to make it seem as slow as molasses. 

At the burning ruins of Undergang, two men stand.

“W-Where the fuck are we?” Matthias shouts, looking around at the burning buildings. He doesn’t recognize this place at all. Soldiers lay all around him, clad in his kingdom’s colors. Though its colors and designs seem older and more drab, rather than the bright colors that they have now. 

“We’re in my kingdom, dipshit! This is what happened seven years ago!” Lukas yells, anger and rage present in his voice. His hands clenched and his eyes burning with old flames given new fuel. 

“What? How did-” Matthias tries to say, but he is cut off. 

“Shut up! You know how! And you are going to pay for it!” Lukas declares, opening his codex once more and casting another spell. Similar to the bolts he had cast earlier, the book now generating green flames and shooting it at Matthias like a flare gun. 

Fortunately, the flames are slower than the bolts, so Matthias most of the flares. One hitting him in the chest, melting the rest of his breastplate instantly. He pulls it off him, the heat from the melted iron charring his skin. 

Now wearing no more than just his godhood, he faces Lukas hand to codex. Another flare launches and Matthias dodges. He realizes he’ll have to get that book away from Lukas.

With this in mind, he launches himself at Lukas. Enduring a hit from the flare, he winces. He swings an arm forward and he hits the book. Along with it, Matthias drops. 

He wheezes as he holds his chest. Pulling his hand away, it’s covered with dust and blood. The pain in his heart now metaphorical and literal. He stands up with trembling legs. Only to face Lukas face to face with the book back in hand. Another wicked spell charging to come out.

A smirk dusted his beautiful face, and it pains him to do it. But he has to. He summons a power from his god, and an aura of bright white burns the surrounding area. Incinerating the book and singeing his hands. 

The smell of burnt meat wafts in the air, and Lukas takes two steps back. And yet, no blood drips. In fact, what Matthias sees is smoke. Billowing from holes all over Lukas’s singed hand. 

It’s weird that this is happening right now. He can’t bring himself to believe this is fucking happening. What the hell. He knows that gods exist in this world, but SMOKE coming out of his former friend’s hand holes is the last thing he expected to happen today.

“What the fuck,” Matthias states, this isn’t a question folks. Why would it? He’s just confused. 

“Don’t be too surprised, dipshit. You can make glowy auras from your body, this is not the weirdest thing you have seen,” Lukas says, still having smoke coming out of his hands. Having enough of this shit, he shoots the smoke at Matthias. Some are incinerated when it hits the aura, but a couple puffs still seep in. 

Matthias dashes backward. The smoke follows fast. But Matthias is faster. He dodges, sidesteps, and ducks from the smoke. It could barely get close, but Matthias knows that he can’t keep this up forever. 

As he dodges, he tries to find a weapon. A sword, dagger, or hell, even a battle axe. He’ll need something to use. At the edge of the battlefield, a sword is stuck in rubble. Its blade is knee deep.

When Matthias spots it, he rushes over and holds the handle. He grits his teeth and  _ pulls _ . 


	10. Twisted Identities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finale

Matthias pulls hard, the sword not moving an inch as he pulls. He tries harder, pulling it upwards but it isn’t budging. No matter how hard he tries he can’t do it. It’s stuck in there.

For a brief moment as he pulls, he looks up. Not a second after he does, two deadly silent blasts of smoke stare at him. In a blur, Matthias ducks. The blasts flying past him, hitting a wall. Two holes appear on the wall, webs spreading from the point. 

When Matthias stands back up, he sees more blasts coming for him. In an instant, he tries to dodge again. But this time he isn’t so lucky. Two blasts hit him in the shoulders and another on his calf. Like pressurized air, the smoke pierces him. Leaving clean holes in its wake. 

“Fuck!” Matthias mutters, still trying to lodge the sword out. He gives it all of his strength to pull it out, until suddenly.  _ Snap. _

The sword breaks in two, the weapon splitting diagonally. A resigned mutter of curses flew under his breath, as he picked up what’s left of the sword. He grips it in both of his hands as he prepares for another round of battle. 

Three holes in his body, several burnt patches of skin, exhaustion, and a broken sword. Matthias thinks that it could’ve been much worse. From the top of the rubble, Matthias shuffles to Lukas and encircles him. 

Lifting his legs never felt so hard. 

“So, it’s just me and you left,” Matthias says, raising his sword. His right leg is still severely wounded, a hole and burnt skin peppered it. He isn’t going to run any time soon. He needs Lukas to get close.

“Correct,” Lukas answers, smoke still flying out of his fingers, “But, I’ve got to ask you something, Matthias,”

“It’s now or never, old friend,” Matthias replies. He just needs to stall until he has an idea of what to do. Talk and talk, until you’re not paying attention. He can do this. He believes in himself. A spark of gold decorating his broken sword.

“Well, it’s quite simple really,” Lukas states, the smoke seemingly coiling in the air like a snake, “You’ve asked me why I did this, then I must ask you. Why? Why are you doing this?”

Something wants to rush through his throat but he holds it back, and he thinks on it. Why is he doing this? He would say to defend his kingdom, but recently, he hasn’t been connected to the god worshipping kingdom. He doesn’t like it that much ever since he was a kid. 

To heed the Seraphim’s warning? He was already a god. Or demi-god, its semantics that he doesn’t want to get into now. He really isn’t scared of death that much. He probably won’t die. Probably. But he isn’t going to test that now. 

He feels like he doesn’t have much purpose in his life. He thinks why. He thinks back to when he was kid. Playing and having fun. Riding horses, play fighting, he was so happy back then. These days though, he feels hollow. 

The sword droops in his hands and he stops shuffling. The motivation to carry it falling more and more. The reason that he came to fight the army was to protect his kingdom, but in all honesty he couldn’t give two shits about it. 

The thoughts batter him and he thinks about what happened before he got here. The past seven years was a blur. He only remembers his intensive training to be a paladin, to be a holy knight for his father. To be someone he doesn’t want to be. Coerced and forced by his father. 

In the midst of this existential thinking, Matthias doesn’t notice something crucial. Something he might have noticed if he didn’t go into his mind in the battle. 

That Lukas was tricking him.

In quick succession three blasts of Lukas’s pressurized smoke launched itself at Matthias. Aimed for the head. Not even a god could survive something that powerful, Lukas thought. With three satisfying cracks, three holes are punched into Matthias’s head. Lukas could even see the wall behind him through them. 

His eyes went blank as blood begins to waterfall from his wounds. Rushing forth like a broken dam, Matthias was dead instantly. Briefly after, his legs gave out and he faceplants onto the ground. The blood from his various wounds pooling around him, forming a puddle.

After the kill, Lukas is almost breathless. He killed his friends. Like for real, it wasn’t a joke. The emotions that were usually as dead as a table starts to flare up. Tears start to stream from his eyes, black inky tears. But still tears.

He doesn’t know what he needs to do now. His whole purpose is done. Take revenge on the Håber kingdom: complete. Maybe he can be a ruler to his new settlement? That doesn’t seem appealing though. He really doesn’t know what to do with himself now.

In a moment of stupidity and an ignorance of a god’s advice, Lukas turns his back on the body. And because of that stupid action, we need to find a better perspective.

-

Matthias wakes up, his last memories filled with the image of his former friend killing him. But when he looks around, he realizes that this isn’t heaven, or what the equivalent would be. 

The wounds that he was inflicted are still present on his body. The holes in his leg and shoulders ache in a dulled pain. He even feels a stinging headache coming as he looks around where he woke up.

It’s dark. Really dark. Nothing seems to be here. It’s like being in a dark cave but you don't know where the way out is. He stands around in this void, confused. Why was he here? He should be dead. But something else had other plans. 

Appearing from the void, is an old blue grandfather clock. His father had a clock in his study but it wasn’t blue. But why was this thing here? Its face is dark. It doesn’t show the time. It’s still. But an aura of grandeur seems to emanate from it.

Matthias gets close to touch it, his finger nearly touching the face of the clock. Before it suddenly lights up like a candle. Its bright light startled the prince. From what he could see, the face is split into two even squares. One bright yellow and one dark green. In the middle is his kingdom’s symbol. A clock hand is down the middle, pointing at the dividing line between the two colors.

Then, it began to tick. 

From side to side, the arm ticked. As the arm landed on one side, the color brightened. The clock ticks for a while, and Matthias begins to wonder if it will go on ad infinitum. But then it slows, the frequency of the tick and tock prolonging. Until it stops at the dividing line. 

The sound of a gong blasts from the clock and Matthias is pushed back.

Then all at once, this is what happened. The clock explodes in color, its blue coloring burning away to become a brilliant yellow. Matthias takes a step back, and winces. The hole in his leg is still present.

The explosion of color begins to grow bigger until eventually it swallows Matthias into its yellow flames. Inside he doesn’t feel pain, in fact, he feels something else. He feels… Hope. The feelings of belief, of prayer, of good emotions, he feels it all… but from where? Because he knows for damn sure that no one he knows will pray for him.

But he doesn’t get his answer as he can feel his wounds stitching itself shut. The muscle, bone, and flesh that were burnt and blown off in his body regenerated in a rapid pace. He could feel his lost blood entering back into his body, and circulating in his heart. His brain being active again, and finally.

His heart beats.

-

Back in the real world, Lukas is facing away from the body of his former friend. But if he were just to turn around, he would see the most awe-inspiring thing he will ever see.

Rising from the ground like a puppet pulled by its strings, Matthias rises. Body limp and without soul, it blazes like a star. Colors unnatural to the human eye shining with intensity as Matthias’s body fixes itself through an unknown power.

Lukas turns around just in time to see Matthias’s glory. His body finishes regenerating, and he stands on his healed legs, eyes still closed. The final parts of the colors dissipate as a gong-like boom shockwaves the terrain. 

Matthias opens his eyes. 

He looks around in shock, thinking if this is real or not. He’s taking deep breaths as he takes in that he is alive again. Finally he notices Lukas staring at him, he sighs, and picks up his broken sword.

Meanwhile Lukas is taken aback but he expected this. As Moros had said, killing a god is harder than you think. He prepares to fight again, smoke billows from his hands once again. But before he does anything he is thrown back and hits a wall. Cracks spider web from him.

Lukas tries to get up but something’s stopping him. He looks down and sees a pommel in his abdomen. Its blade sunken through and out his back. In the distance, he could see Matthias with his right arm outstretched. 

Lukas tries again, but in a blur of speed Matthias is already in front of him. A grim expression paints his face. Lukas thinks he could see tears at the edge of those eyes. But he himself can’t feel any different. 

Through a trembling voice, Matthias spoke, “Why did you make me do this?” Matthias told him.

“Do what?” Lukas asked back, he knows that he could be killed here. Or, ‘killed’. So for now, he tries to stall, to try and make Matthias talk until he can-

“If you try to do anything, I’ll fry you right here and now,” Matthias warns, the edge of his fingers glowing a fierce white, “Now answer the question,”

“You already know why I did it, Matthias. It was for revenge, after all these years have you finally become deaf?” Lukas repeated. He can’t do his gas thing, or he’ll be fried. For now, he’ll try to find an opening, for when Matthias is focusing on something else.

“I just can’t believe you’ve done this, alright?! You were shy, subdued, and quiet when we were younger, and you definitely can’t control smoke in the past!” He thinks for a second, “I’m pretty sure you can’t control smoke in the past, what happened to you?”

Lukas sighs, let’s try a different tactic, he thinks. “I...died, Matthias,” Lukas states, this is not new information, you’ve read him being dead, “I died in a cave, alone. This was after the uprising I have told you,”

“Oh, uh, should I be sorry?” 

“Do not worry I got better,” Lukas states. Matthias blinked for a few seconds. “Alright…So what does that have to do with this?”

“Let’s say that I was...visited by a god. This god  _ forced _ me into serving him, and if I don’t kill you… he’ll subject my soul to the deepest hell he knows,” He lied, Moros had never threatened him. Quite the opposite really, after Lukas defeated the wolves Moros came to him in one of their bodies and guided Lukas in defeating the Håber army.

“So, it’s either you or me then? If you kill me you won’t get sent to hell?” Matthias asked, a grim look on his face. Now’s the chance, Lukas thinks. If he can make Matthias focused on his situation, he can strike. 

From where the broken sword splits him open, he manipulates smoke from his wound. Careful not to make it noticeable, he makes the smoke come from his backside. As thin as a razor so Matthias doesn’t notice. Like a tentacle, the smoke travels under Matthias legs. It rises and hovers just behind his head, ready to drill into Matthias’s head.

“Yes, that’s correct,” Lukas says, “I don’t know how to escape! Please it’s just me, you little ol’ pal Lukas! Help me,”

Matthias nods, “Fine, for the Lukas I know and love,”

A fake smile spreads across Lukas face, and the smoke descends. Rushing forward and drilling inside Matthias’s head, killing him instantly. Lukas stands in arrogance and mutters words of demeaning insults at the dead man. 

That’s what Lukas was picturing at least. 

In reality, a burst of yellow flames spring forth from the blade in Lukas’s body. The flames burn through his body, incinerating his insides. The smoke tentacle dissipates. 

“How-?” Lukas asked, before being cut off, “You used contractions. That was your tell. You were never controlled by anything, you just want to take revenge on me for something I didn’t do,”

“Please, Matthias do not do this, I do not want to die!” Lukas shouts, he tries to escape trying to separate himself from the flame that’s consuming him. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t want to do this either,” Matthias says, a smile filled with tears as he finally kills the corrupt version of his most best friend. The body burns into ash, the sword still embedded deep into the wall.

Smoke blows through the air as the last parts of his body are incinerated. Matthias kneels. He doesn’t know what to do now. 

-

A man stands above an unmarked grave, a sword’s pommel stuck in the dirt of his dear departed friend whom he had killed. It’s night, the air’s cold and surroundings are dark. The headstone of the grave bears no name nor any identification. But what surrounds it are candles and ornaments the man had given to decorate it. 

The man is adult, tall and muscular. He had recently made himself a lumberjack. Bringing wood for construction in a young kingdom. The ruler was an old friend he had never met for over a decade. He had no intention to meet him.

In his hands is a wood marionette. It was one he had given his friend for his birthday. But it had been burnt to ash after a fire. After he had passed, the man tried to remake it. The first try was a mess, it wasn’t worthy for his departed friend.

And so, for seven years he studied the art of making a marionette. After many years, he finally mastered it. Tonight, he gifts his friend the puppet whom he had loved so much.

From behind him, he could hear footsteps. In this time of night? They must be quite sleepless. He had planned to go home after he gave the puppet to the grave, but if he can comfort the wandering insomniac he would be quite happy.

When he turns around, the man looks face to face to the ruler of the kingdom. In quiet disbelief, he mumbles, “Lukas…?”

“How did you know my name?”

And the two talked.

-

A man waits in a tower, not trapped or anything. More… waiting for news about his new friend. When suddenly, a knock comes from the door. 

No sounds came from my feet as I opened the creaky door. In the doorway was Kirkland. He was breathing heavily, and I stopped to look at him. His armor was still spotless, no chinks in the armor or even any blood. 

“Did you win?” I asked him, he tried to say something, but gave up as he slumps on the couch. 

Through a pillow, Kirkland says, “Yes, we won. At a cost, but you knew about this didn’t you?”

I nod my head, “Yeah, but I didn’t see the ending to the war. I was sent back in time after all,”

“Your kingdom needs a king y’know. You can’t live this lie forever,” Kirkland tries to convince me. But through the pillows, he sounds like an angry child.

“I know, but I don’t want to go back. Brings me bad memories,” I explained, he was much more comfortable living in the tower. The kingdom was nice and didn’t have many pressure to follow a religion. So that’s a big plus.

“Well, fine then. But, I can’t stay here forever. So, I guess this is goodbye?” Kirkland says. We had both known about each others real identities for a while now. So he was bound to leave and pick another champion. 

“Yeah, it was nice hanging out with you, Moros. I’ll tell Elpis that you said hello,”

“First name basis now, eh? You two have been getting quite close.”

“Yeah, it’s about time really, I’ve been serving them for years now. I was bound to know it,”

“Well, I better go then, yeah?” Moros says. He stands up from the couch and salutes with me with two fingers. “Take care, Matthias,”

I wave back at him, as the meat puppet disappears in a burst of smoke. I sigh, Matthew was a dumb name anyway.


	11. Fluffy Lemons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone fucks and it's not me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Smut incoming

In a rotting branch of time only visible to the gods, a different sets of events occured. 

In this timeline, instead of launching an attack to destroy Undergang, the king of Håber simply waited for the last proposal to be read to them. And in this timeline, the king never sends Matthias to Clyde Nite’s Night Knight school. 

A place where the prophecy never came true.

And in this timeline, nothing bad ever happens between the two Princes. A timeline so sweet, some would it’s teeth rotting. For this chapter, we shall intrude into this quaint rotting branch, and make it even sweeter. 

Today, I shall tell you about a particular story in the life of Matthias Håber. The story, of how he lost his virginity to his best friend, Lukas Undergang.

So, shall we?

-

In the coldest month of the year, a young man is having his birthday. Formerly, eighteen years of age, now he is nineteen. This young man’s name is Matthias Håber. A prince from the kingdom of Håber. 

This young man has been through no strife or fights and he is pampered greatly by his adoring and overprotective father figure, Gilbert Webb. Some would say that Gilbert is more of a father than his actual father.

His father, in preparation for his birthday celebration, turned the whole cafetaria into a huge ballroom. Fit for a party worthy of a king. But remember, it is not the king that is having a party. It is the prince. 

In the party, almost everyone is having a good time. The food was delicious, the music was great, and the atmosphere was simply out of this world. But, ironically, the only one not having a good time is the birthday boy himself.

He sits in his birthday throne (more of a couch really) with a plate of cake on his right hand and a fork in the other. He has a sullen look on his face as he looks around the ballroom. He sees the pile of happy people, dancing, eating, and listening to the good music. And he feels sad, he should be happy. It is his birthday party after all. But something is missing. 

Suddenly, a man sits on the couch, startling Matthias. He turns his head to see Gilbert sitting beside him, his arm on the head of the couch and a birthday cake in his hand. Quietly, eating it. 

The both of them sit in silence as Gilbert continues to eat his cake, not bothering to look at Matthias as he looks around confused. Why is his caretaker/bodyguard doing here? He thinks. 

Until eventually, Gilbert finishes the piece of cake. Suddenly, he talks. 

“So, why aren’t ya partying with the others?” Gilbert asks, looking at Matthias and pointing to the crowd.

“Eh, not in the mood I guess?” He replies, stabbing the fork into the cake, “I don’t know, it’s just- something feels missing y’know?”

“Yup, I get ya,” Gilbert hums, leaning forward, “Bet I know why,”

“Oh yeah?” Matthias replies, looking back at Gilbert, “Why then?”

“Let me pull this back, did ya think no one would hear ya doin’... whatever ya do in your bedroom?” Gilbert says. Immediately, Matthias’ is flushed with embarrassment. 

“The moanin’ and groanin’... we have thick walls here Matthias, but not thick doors. I stand there for most of my days,” Gilbert reveals, “Do ya get where I’m goin’ with this?”

Matthias nods his head rapidly, looking away as he does so. 

Gilbert barks a harsh laugh as he looks at Matthias, “Don’t be so embarrassed of it, mate. I get it, I’ve done it too sometimes,”

“That doesn’t make it better!” Matthias shouts. And Gilbert laughs harder. 

“Just get straight to the point then!” Matthias demands. Gilbert is still laughing and he even coughs a few times. 

“Alright, alri-” Cough “ght. So, you haven’t seen Lukas in a bit yeah?” Gilbert asks, a sly look on his face. 

“Yeah? We haven’t talked in months, why do you ask?” Matthias says, still beet red. 

“Well, after ya had ya lil’ fight months ago, your… activities have increased since then,” Gilbert explains, and Matthias thinks he knows where Gilbert is going, “So, all I’m sayin’ is that the both of ya just need to meet up again. It’s about time anyways,”

“So… you’re thinking that I...do that because I haven’t talked to Lukas in a while?” Matthias asks. Getting a “Yup,” from Gilbert. After so, Matthias barks a laugh, “You couldn’t be further, my dear fa- friend!”

Matthias stands up, “Just to prove it to you, I’m gonna find that bastard. ‘Cus he’ll definitely be here, and I’m going to talk to him, and NOTHING will happen, alright?!”

“Alright, mate,” Gilbert says, wearing a shit-eating grin, “Just don’t come yell at me when I come in ya room to see the both of ya in bed,”

“Why you-!” Matthias begins to say but is cut off when he sees someone in the distance. It’s Lukas. Oh god, he’s here? Matthias thinks. Gilbert looks at Matthias in confusion before he follows his gaze, then he pulls a knowing smile.

“As you were saying?” Gilbert purrs, and Matthias snaps his gaze at him. 

“I’ll get back to you,” Matthias says, staring daggers at Gilbert. He turns his attention back to Lukas and jogs over to him. Behind him, Gilbert follows. 

Lukas is standing awkwardly in the middle of the ballroom, his personal guard - Kirkland - is standing by his side. He usually doesn’t bring Kirkland anywhere, but ever since his fight with Matthias, his father has insisted in making Kirkland guard him.

Lukas sees Matthias first before he arrives, and he tries to look away. He doesn’t notice Gilbert following Matthias from behind though. 

“Hey!” Matthias shouted, and Lukas turned and wince as Matthias approaches. 

“H-Hey Matthias, how are you?” Lukas says, totally calm. In his mind though it is more like, ‘Why did I come here this was a bad idea,”

“Uh, nothing much! Y’know having a birthday and all,” Matthias says. After those masterful words of feelings, an awkward silence follows and the both of them stand in each other’s space without saying anything. Touching their hair and scratching their head sort of thing.

But finally something breaks the ice. “Kirkland?”

And the attention snaps to Gilbert, standing with a look of disbelief. While Kirkland, looks like he is seeing a ghost. Kirkland mutters under his breath, “Gilbert..?”

“Oh my god, it is you! You son of a bitch! I haven’t seen you in years!” Gilbert shouts and throwing his hand up. It disturbs some of the guests so he turns it down and sheepishly mumbles soft apologies.

“Yeah, how’ve you been?” Kirkland asks, “Working as a personal guard, eh?”

“Bingo, old friend. I’ve been fine! Just taking care of my charge here,” Gilbert says, putting a hand on Matthias’s hair and ruffling it a bit. Matthias scowls and forces his hand off him. 

While the two are talking, Lukas looks over to Matthias. After the months of no contact, the both of them should talk and discuss the nature of their friendship now. Or what’s left of it. 

Lukas nudges Matthias and says, “Hey, can we talk? About… what happened a few months ago?”

Matthias nods, “Yeah, definitely. But do you really wanna do it here? There’s a lot of people around…”

“No of course not, dummy. We will talk in your room, it is more private that way,” Lukas says, shifting away from the two old friends, “Now, let us go. I do not want to be around two friends as they are talking of the past,”

The both of them sneak away from the two guards, jogging over to the outside of the ballroom. They both do not waste time and head straight to Matthias’s bedroom. It isn’t a long journey, but in the meantime, Lukas’s heart beats hard. 

They arrive at the room, and Lukas thinks that it has not changed much. Matthias leads the way and sits on the bed. While Lukas follows, closing the door, and sitting close beside Matthias. They aren’t close enough to be touching, and it is on purpose. Matthias frowns at the sitting arrangements.

“So, what do you want to talk about?” Matthias asks. He could predict that it will probably be about their fight a couple months ago, but he has a strange feelings there is going to be something more. 

“The… nature of our friendship after our fight,” Lukas answers.

“And what about it?”

“Are we… you know, still friends?” Lukas questions, and immediately Matthias slides over to Lukas. 

“Of course we are still friends, what did you think was going to happen?” Matthias asks, holding Lukas’s hands.

“I… I don’t know, it is just- after our fight. I cannot stop thinking about how mad you were at me. I have never seen you that mad,” Lukas confesses, and Matthias face falls.

“Hey, hey. That was months ago, I’ve forgiven you. I get it you were trying to protect from whatever danger was coming, I can understand that now,” Matthias consoled. Tears wells up in Lukas’s eyes, and a few drops trail down. Matthias wipes them off and Lukas smiles.

“Yeah, about that… seems like that whole prophecy was all phony, nothing came of it,” Lukas says.

“Oh, really?” Matthias asks. 

Lukas nods, “So can we…?”

“Be friends again? I’ve already said that dumbass, c’mere,” Matthias says, pulling Lukas close into a deep hug. Both princes don’t say anything as they hold each other, other than the sounds of Lukas’s sniffling, the room is quiet. 

As they hug, Lukas remembers something that he should say now. He pulls away from the hug and wipes away the tears from his eyes. Matthias looks at him confused, an ounce of disappointment when Lukas pulls away. 

“Um, I have something to confess…” Lukas says, he could hear his heart’s beat in his ears as he says this. He has been keeping this secret since they were kids, and he has been scared to reveal it to Matthias since.

“What is it?” Matthias asks, completely oblivious to the atmosphere of the room.

“I, um,” Lukas starts, but he feels he cannot say it. In his head, the phrase ‘Just tell him’ repeats itself over and over.

“I would say take your time, but can you please hurry up?” Matthias suggests, while grinning. The grin sends Lukas to overdrive and he blushes, his face as red as a beet. He turns away and cannot bring himself to look at him. 

“Aw, C’mon. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that,” Matthias backtracks. He thinks he’s mess up, but seeing Lukas turn away beet red, he realizes something. Was Lukas…? Can’t be.

Meanwhile, back to Lukas. He is still trying to keep it together. The blushing was not planned but he cannot for the life of him say what he wants to say. Everytime he wants to it gets caught in his throat. 

But he tries to calm himself, he takes a deep breath and turns back to Matthias. He is still blushing, but he isn’t beet red anymore. Finally, he opens his mouth.

“M-Matthias?”

“What is it?”

“I just want to say that I...I love you,” 

Nothing happens for a moment, and Lukas thinks he blew it. But in reality, Matthias is having an internal explosion of emotion as he is not comprehending those words correctly. Lukas loves  _ him?  _ The Matthias who was always teasing and messing with him. He loves  _ him.  _ The guy who went crazy after Lukas was trying to keep a secret?  _ him? _

On the inside, he thinks he’s handling it well. But in reality, his eyes are staring straight ahead, and his head is so red it might be mistaken for a big apple. 

“Uh…? Are you alright, Matthias?” Lukas asks. Matthias answers by suddenly standing up, and curtly says, “Pardon me,”

He walks over to his bathroom in a stiff manner. And all Lukas can think is that he blew it, he absolutely blew it. He will have to go back, facing ridicule for even  _ thinking _ of having a relationship with Matt-

A sudden shout of excitement from the bathroom cuts Lukas’s train of thought. Lukas looks to the bathroom to see the door opening again and Matthias comes back in the room, holding a small bottle of something.

Matthias sits back down on the bed, and Lukas looks at him confused.

“What is happening right now?” Lukas asks.

“I, uh, feel the same. I love you too,” Matthias confesses, shifting closer to Lukas. Their bodies now touching.

“O-oh? That’s great!” Lukas says, “So, where do we go from here?”

“Well, I was thinking…” Matthias suggests, he raises his hand, and places it above Lukas’s crotch. Matthias smirks and looks to Lukas. 

The other man is currently in disbelief, are they really going to do it right now, just after they had confessed their love for each other? On one hand, they haven’t even kissed yet, on the other,  _ holy fuck how is Matthias so fucking sexy _ . 

Until now, Lukas has never imagined Matthias in this light. He had always been handsome and charismatic, but he has never thought about what’s beneath his clothes. But right now? He definitely wants to find out. 

“Oh ho, someone is ready to play,” Matthias says. Lukas goes beet red again as he could feel Matthias’s hand touching his stiff dick.

“Don’t be embarrassed!” Matthias assures, “Look- how about we don’t start there then?”

Lukas nods, and Matthias asks, “So, do you want to kiss?”

Again, Lukas nods. While he is still beet red, Matthias gets closer and places a kiss on Lukas’s lips. That snapped him out, and Lukas wanted more. He charges at Matthias’s face and steals a kiss.

Matthias is surprised by his aggressiveness but doesn’t complain, and he begins to kiss him back. They begin to snog on each other, Matthias pushing away Lukas’s hair, and Lukas caressing Matthias’s face.

They break the kiss after a few seconds, and stare at each other in disbelief. Is this really happening? The both of them think. And they answer is yes, they are doing this.

They slam at each other again, the romantic feelings of yesteryear now replaced with something more lustful. Something that will make Matthias’s father accuse of being sacrilegious. At the thought of it, it almost makes Matthias stop, but seeing Lukas in front of him, passionately sucking his face off, its worthy being yelled at by his father.

They continue kissing. Periodically stopping to take a gulp of air before continuing. At each break, more clothes come off. What was once a fully clothed snogfest is now transformed to a topless make out session.

Finally, after minutes of kissing. They stop, and look at each other. They admire each other, the little creases and chest hair on their chest. They look at each others face, but for real this time. They admire it, finding the imperfections in their face and loving them for it. 

But for the last time, they dive into another kiss. Both princes snogging each other, their hands wandering to places they’ve never touched. Lukas leans close into the kiss, his hand going around and groping Matthias’s butt. Matthias’s hand meanwhile travels downward into Lukas’s groin. 

As the both of them touch, they groan at the same time. Then, they break the kiss. Matthias, hand still in Lukas’s pants, tries taking it down, only to be stopped by Lukas. 

“C’mon, what’s the hold up?” Matthias asks, tugging Lukas’s pants down.

“Are you sure?” Lukas asks. Matthias nods vigorously.

“It is just- I do not want to disappoint you,” Lukas reveals, blushing, “But, if you are sure…”

In one big pull, Lukas’s pants are down. He didn’t wear any undergarments for today, although because they were scratchy. 

Matthias looks down to see Lukas’s stiff dick, not as big as his own, but still above average. He grabs the bottle and pours some liquid onto his hand. He then leans forward and rubs it on Lukas’s dick. 

Lukas groans when Matthias rubs his dick, and he almost shouts when Matthias puts his mouth on the head. Lukas looks down only to see a head of hair slowly inching its way down his dick. The heat makes Lukas like he’s going to melt, plus he doesn’t think he’s ever felt this much pleasure before. 

He moans and groans as Matthias goes up and down his shaft, making him squirm. This goes for a few minutes, but after that, Lukas feels like he’s going to explode. 

“I-I’m getting close,” Lukas whispers. Matthias doesn’t stop, instead going faster. He then braces himself, as Lukas tenses. From the tip, Lukas comes. The liquid filling Matthias’s mouth.

In quick succession, Matthias sits upright and leans off the bed. Spitting the semen out. 

“Oh, I’m sorry! You didn’t have to do that!” Lukas says, grabbing a towel, “Here, I will clean you up,” 

“No, no it’s fine, I just-” Matthias coughs. “Want to know how you taste. Honestly, it’s a bit bitter, so I’ll probably won’t be doing that again,”

“Oh. Alright. So, what is next?” Lukas yawns, “I am up for another round, but I do not think I can get it up, right now,”

Matthias nods, and suggests, “How about sex? I can still go for a round,”

“S-sure? I am okay with that,”

“Alright then,” Matthias says, grinning. He licks his lips and crawls up to Lukas’s face. He touches Lukas’s face with his hand, and places another kiss on his lips. Lukas’s arms hangs off Matthias’s shoulders. They kiss longer, one of them putting a tongue in the other. 

As they do, Matthias pinches Lukas’s nipples, and he moans into the kiss. Finally, they separate, and Matthias motions for Lukas to grab the bottle. He reaches over to it and gives it to him.

Matthias drops his pants, his penis already hard. Lukas looks at it in awe, it’s bigger than his, that’s for sure. 

Matthias pours some oil on his dick, and some into Lukas’s asshole. Lukas squirming as the liquid drips inside. But before doing anything, Matthias spreads Lukas’s butthole. Lukas squirms more, as he does.

“It tickles…” Lukas whispers. Matthias grins, and puts his mouth on it. Licking and kissing his sensitive hole. Lukas groans, and Matthias laps it up. Matthias then uses his hand and plays with Lukas’s flaccid penis. 

If you were outside the room, you would think that a dog was in there. Because Lukas is howling.

Drowning in pleasure, Lukas comes again. Albeit not as hard as before, some dribble out of his flaccid dick. He takes deep breaths, trying to calm down after that. 

Suddenly, he’s dragged to the edge of the bed. He looks up to see Matthias standing, his hands on Lukas’s legs. 

“Now, flip over,” Matthias orders, and Lukas follows. He flips over, his legs now on the floor. 

“Okay, now I need you need to relax, don’t be tense. This is going to feel good,” Matthias advises. Lukas takes another deep breath, relaxing. 

“Good, now I’m putting it in now, alright? Remember, just relax,” Matthias tells him. Lukas relaxes, and breathes. But when Matthias’s dick is at his entrance, he tenses. Matthias grunts. 

“Okay, Lukas. Just relax, again. I won’t move unless you tell me too alright?” Matthias says. Lukas nods, and tries to relax. He can feel is ass opening up, and now he prepares himself. 

“Okay- Okay you can move now,” Lukas says, immediately, he can feel Matthias’s dick slide in. Lukas moans, his voice echoing in the room. 

“Are you alright?” Matthias asks. 

“Yep, yep, I am fine. You can move more,” Lukas answers. He moans more as Matthias moves, at first slow, but progressively being faster. Until finally, Lukas’s moans fill the room. 

Lukas’s dick tries to get erect again but fails, instead, dribbling more cum. Matthias meanwhile is having the time of his life fucking him. He grunts every time he is balls deep into Lukas. The tightness of his asshole squeezing his dick dry.

This isn’t his first time, but it is sure as hell his best. 

Matthias slams his dick into Lukas’s backside, over and over. Finally, he gets cross eyed and he shouts, “I’m coming!” 

Lukas feels the liquid filling his asshole. It feels warm and thick, was Matthias pent up? He thinks. 

Both Princes pant as Matthias pulls out of Lukas, his cum dripping from Lukas’s hole. Nothing happens for a few minutes as the both of them take a break. Lukas’s legs tremble while Matthias sits on the floor. 

“Okay, I’m going to shower. You should too, but I don’t think you can stand up without falling,” Matthias says, standing up. Lukas doesn’t answer, only whimpering. Matthias shrugs, and goes into the shower. 

Lukas meanwhile is in a world of ecstacy as he trembles on the edge of the bed. He feels drowsy and decides to sleep. 

When he wakes up, he’s in bed. His arms wrapped around someone beside him. When he looks up, he sees a sleeping Matthias. And he slowly realizes that he’s in bed with him. Lukas decides to sleep again, not wanting to disturb the peace. So, he nuzzles close, and drifts off to sleep.

FIN

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this story! I am glad to have finally released this beast of a story to the world and I am ever eternal to my friend for suggesting it to me.
> 
> @TerminalVacuum on twitter
> 
> My friend who suggested the story: @Butterphytis on Instagram


End file.
